Singapore aims to allow quarantine-free travel for all vaccinated visitors after omicron subsides

Singapore aims to allow quarantine-free travel for all vaccinated visitors after omicron subsides

SINGAPORE — Singapore intends to allow vaccinated visitors from all countries to skip quarantine on arrival when the omicron wave has passed, authorities announced on Wednesday during a virtual press briefing. Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said travel rules were meant to prevent infections from being imported into the country, but that category of cases represents only 1% of daily cases and "no longer have a material impact" on Singapore's Covid situation. The focus in future will be on whether visitors to Singapore will fall severely ill and burden the health-care system, he said. "We should actually emphasize less on SHN and tests on travelers, [and] more on ensuring that they are fully vaccinated and boosted," he said. "Instead of having vaccinated travel lanes or VTLs with selected countries that we think are low risk, we should actually allow SHN-free travel for … fully vaccinated travelers from all countries," Ong said, referring to stay-home notices issued to visitors to Singapore. "We should make this transition not now, but after omicron wave has peaked and start to subside," he added. The authorities did not set a date for this new policy to take effect, but Gan Kim Yong, the minister for