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Singapore welcomes more travelers under quarantine-free program
Singapore Airlines flights from Amsterdam and London arrived on Wednesday under the so-called vaccinated travel lanes (VTL).
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ingapore welcomed on Wednesday the first travelers under an expanded quarantine-free program, marking a big step towards the aviation hub restoring its international links, despite a sharp rise in its COVID-19 cases.
Singapore Airlines flights from Amsterdam and London arrived on Wednesday under the so-called vaccinated travel lanes (VTL).
"Yeah, that's [a] perfect visit. It's really convenient," said Singapore resident Andrea Mullens, who returned from the Netherlands with her daughter, who will return to school in Singapore, as quoted by Reuters.
"It's a good thing happening. I think travel in general is a bit challenging at the moment."
Husband Harald said he would return to the Netherlands next week on business.
"I do appreciate that family can travel again," he said.
From this week, the lanes will be extended to vaccinated arrivals from Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Britain and the United States, who can enter Singapore without quarantine if they pass COVID-19 tests.
Singapore earlier opened the lane to arrivals from Germany and Brunei and will include South Korea from mid-November.
While Singapore is opening further, a recent rise in cases has prompted tighter measures locally, including limiting social gatherings to two people and only allowing vaccinated people to enter malls.
Mask-wearing is also mandatory, with some violators fined or even jailed for breaching COVID-19 regulations.
On Monday, the United States advised citizens against travel to Singapore, raising its alert for the city-state to its highest risk level.
Singapore saw a record 3,994 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, having recorded more than 3,000 daily infections in recent days. Most are asymptomatic or mild, with over 80 percent of the 5.45 million population vaccinated.
Singapore had, until recently, kept the virus largely under control through border closures and strict contact-tracing and quarantining.
Before the pandemic, tourism accounted for about five percent of Singapore's GDP, said Song Seng Wun, a regional economist with CIMB Private Banking.
"We used to get 1.6 million tourists every month, our airport used to handle over a thousand flights a day pre-pandemic. Now it is just over 300 flights a day," he told AFP.
Statistics from the Singapore tourism board showed international visitor arrivals plunging to less than 2.8 million last year from a record 19.1 million in 2019.
Allowing in travelers without quarantine "instils a bit of fear" in some people, said Singaporean Simon Chow, 22, but added that people need to live with the virus.
