When the Covid-19 Pandemic first began late 2019 in Wuhan, no one could have predicted what would follow. Taking grip globally in 2020, everyday freedoms in Europe, USA, Asia and every other part of the world reduced significantly. Lockdowns, travel restrictions, mass testing and eventually Covid vaccines became the ‘new normal’.
Singapore, long at the forefront of exemplary containment and vaccination management is now taking its most decisive move towards ‘living with Covid-19’. In a speech to the nation on March 24th, PM Lee acknowledged the collective achievement of all Singaporeans throughout the past two years and announced the most wide-ranging normalization to daily lives since the beginning of the pandemic and whilst ‘..the changes to rules stop short of a complete opening up, and the Republic will maintain its measured approach to dealing with the virus that has served it well since the pandemic began’.
Some of the biggest changes affect transport to and from the Island, the Vaccinated Travel Lanes between Singapore and selected countries have now been scrapped and from April 1st all vaccinated travellers can enter Singapore without quarantine or restriction by air and land from Malaysia; quotas and entry approvals will be a thing of the past.
The Vaccinated Travel Framework will replace the existing Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) scheme with the Ministry of Health for Singapore advising that the pre-departure test two days before departure will remain in place for now.
Following the announcement, the Changi Airport Group Chief Executive Lee Seow Hiang said the airport is now preparing to welcome more travellers.
Hopefully a complete return to normalization for travel to Singapore is almost upon us. With countries around the world aiming to get back to normality post Covid-19, our pre-pandemic travel freedoms might not be too far away.
TCB Group in Singapore look forward to welcoming you back!