Singapore extends stay-home notice, Malaysia suspends travel bubble

Hanoi (VNA) – Singapore has decided to lengthen the stay-home notice (SHN) period for travellers from higher-risk countries or regions to 21 days, instead of 14 days, in the context that the COVID-19 pandemic continues developing complicatedly, with the presence of many new variants.

Accordingly, the extended SHN will apply to travellers arriving from all countries and regions, except  Australia, Brunei, New Zealand, China (including Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau), from May 7 at 11.59pm. They will be required to serve their 21-day SHN at dedicated facilities.

Travellers from Fiji and Vietnam in the past 21 days before arrival in Singapore will be subjected to a 21-day SHN at dedicated facilities, with the option to serve the last seven days at their places of residence.

The country also decided to tighten safe management measures from May 8-30 to reduce interactions among social circles. One big change is the reduction of permissible group size in social gatherings, from eight persons to five persons.

On May 4, the nation recorded 17 new cases, including five locally-transmitted infections.

Meanwhile, Senior Minister and Defence Minister of Malaysia Ismail Sabri Yaakob said on May 4 that the Malaysian government will no longer allow tourists to travel between states that are under the recovery movement control order (RMCO).

He also added that the travel bubble for RMCO states will be suspended.

The country reported 3,120 new cases on May 4, raising the tally to 420,632, including 1,574 deaths.

On the day, the Philippines recorded 5,683 new infections – the lowest reported on a day since March 19. The total count reached 1,067,892 cases.

Meanwhile, 1,763 new cases were seen in Thailand on the same day, bringing the total number to 72,788. With 27 deaths reported on the day, the total number of fatalities in the country reached 303./.