Singapore, Malaysia to open land borders for vaccinated travellers

Hanoi (VNA) – Singapore and Malaysia will launch a quarantine-free travel lane at their land border crossing, one of the world's busiest, for people vaccinated against COVID-19.

The plan is expected to be effective from November 29.

The land travel lane in the first phase will apply to citizens, permanent residents or long-term pass holders of the country they are entering, to allow people to visit families on the other side of the border, the office of Singapore's prime minister said in a statement.

The lane will be progressively expanded.

Malaysia announced the creation of the land border travel lane separately on November 24.

Singapore, with a population of 5.45 million, relies heavily on Malaysians living in the southern state of Johor to staff businesses ranging from restaurants to semiconductor manufacturing.

Many Malaysians used to commute daily from across the border prior to the pandemic, Reuters said.

The same day, Cambodia announced revised travel conditions, implementation of health measures and the quarantine in Cambodia for travelers entering the country in accordance with the new normalcy.

According to Khmer Times, travellers injected with COVID-19 vaccines must bring a complete COVID-19 vaccination certificate or a certificate confirming a negative COVID-19 (PCR test) result in the 72 hours before arriving in Cambodia, recognised by the health authorities of the country concerned or last visited country before leaving for Cambodia.

For travellers who have not been vaccinated against COVID-19 or have not been vaccinated complete basic dose of COVID-19 vaccine entering to Cambodia, they are required to do the rapid test for the antigen COVID-19 (Rapid Test) at the entrance of the country and need to wait for the test results. After receiving a negative COVID-19 test result, the individual is required to have a 14- day quarantine at a designated facility or by the Ministry of Health or the competent authority and individual must be tested by PCR test machine on the 13th day of the quarantine.

If an individual is found positive, the patient may be referred for treatment or referred to an authorised clinic by the Ministry of Health. Passengers are required to have a hotel reservation document for the quarantine. In case of no hotel booking, they must prepare 2,000 USD in cash (for foreign travellers) to deposit at the entrance of Cambodia to guarantee the cost during the quarantine upon the arrival in Cambodia./.