Travelers arrive at the departure hall of Changi International Airport in Singapore on August 19. (Photo: AFP) Under the programme, Singapore allows quarantine-free entryfor fully vaccinated travellers arriving from certain countries on designatedflights or buses. The travellers have to undergo regular testing.
About two dozen countries are listed in the programmeincluding Australia, India, Malaysia, Britain and the United States.
The Singapore governmentsaid it would also reduce the VTL quotas and ticket sales for travel afterJanuary 20. For flights, the total number of VTL tickets would be capped at 50percent of the previously allocated quota.
"Our border measureswill help to buy us time to study and understand the Omicron variant, and tostrengthen our defences, including enhancing our healthcare capacity, andgetting more people vaccinated and boosted," the country’s health ministrysaid in a statement.
Last month, Singapore andMalaysia reopened their shared land borders, allowing vaccinated travellers tocross after nearly two years of being shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
As many as 300,000Malaysians commuted daily to Singapore before the pandemic. The sudden closingof the border in March 2020 left tens of thousands stranded on both sides,separated from families and fearing for their jobs./.
VNA
