Singapore considers allowing vaccinated travellers to enter

The Singaporean government announced that it will consider relaxing travel restrictions for people who have received the COVID-19 vaccination, according to Reuters.

Singapore has had relative success in controlling the spread of the coronavirus since lockdown measures were first implemented in June 2020, with the city-states number of daily cases sitting at almost zero thanks to a highly successful contact tracing system, a broad foreign travel ban that is regarded as one of the strictest in the world, and high levels of public compliance.

Now, it looks as though officials are finally ready to let foreign travellers back into the city-state, under the condition that they have received the COVID-19 vaccination. The new regulation could be implemented before May, as this is when the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) will make its debut in Asia.

This new regulation, however, will only go into effect if there is substantial evidence that the vaccine is indeed effective.

While speaking in parliament earlier this week, Lawrence Wong, co-head of the government’s virus taskforce said, ‘If there is clear evidence that transmission risks can be lowered significantly (by vaccines), we will certainly consider some relaxation to the SHN (stay home notice) regime for vaccinated travellers.’

Until the vaccines have been proven successful, vaccinated passengers and all other arrivals into Singapore will be required to abide by the current COVID-19 SHN rules.

As of January 8, Singapore has a total of 58 813 COVID-19 cases and 58 562 recoveries. There have been 29 COVID-19 related deaths, according to WorldoMeter.