Travellers to S’pore From High-Risk Areas Can Now Serve 14 Days of SHN Instead of 21

Sometimes, it seems so surreal that it’s been one-and-a-half years since COVID-19 emerged and brought dystopian fiction to life.

That’s one-and-a-half years of everybody’s lives practically revolving around COVID-19.

So, ready for your daily dose (haha!) of COVID-19 news?

SHN to be Cut Short for Travellers from High-Risk Countries

Today (23 Jun), the Ministry of Health (MOH) announced in a statement that the Stay-Home Notice (SHN) for new travellers arriving from high-risk countries and regions would be cut short.

From today (23 Jun) onwards, travellers are now only required to serve a 14-day SHN at dedicated SHN facilities, instead of the previous 21-day SHN.

According to MOH’s statement, this is because while there is increased transmissibility with the emergence of new variants of concern, it has found no evidence that these variants have longer incubation periods. This conclusion comes after having consulted both overseas and local data.

The 21-day SHN for all travellers with recent travel history in the past 21 days to high risk countries and regions was implemented from 8 May.

Since its implementation, there have been 270 imported cases among such travellers as of Tuesday (22 Jun), added MOH.

“All of them had incubation periods well within the 14-day window. As such, we will reduce the SHN period from 21 days back to 14 days,” said MOH.

However, that is not to say that the government is cutting back on safety measures.

In order to detect potential cases of infection early and provide infected travellers with appropriate medical care as soon as possible, new travellers arriving from high-risk countries are required to take an Antigen Rapid Test (ART) using self-test kits on the third, seventh and eleventh day after arriving in Singapore.

This will be done while the travellers are serving their SHN.

Moreover, this is in addition to the COVID-19 Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests they have to take on arrival in Singapore, as well as on the fourteenth day of their arrival, before they finish serving their SHN.

Changes to SHN for Travellers From Taiwan & Israel 

Previously, travellers who had travel history to Taiwan and Israel in the past 21 days immediately prior to arrival in Singapore had to serve a 7-day SHN at their place of residence, on top of a 14-day SHN at dedicated SHN facilities.

However, as of 23 June, 2359 hours, travellers from these countries will be allowed to apply to opt out of dedicated SHN facilities before arrival. Instead, they can apply to serve their 14-day SHN at their place of residence

However, travellers will only be allowed to do so if they fulfilled certain criteria.

Firstly, they must have travelled to no other country or region other than Taiwan and Israel in the past 21 days immediately prior to entry into Singapore. This includes the following countries and regions: Australia, New Zealand, Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao, and Brunei Darussalam.

Furthermore, they must be occupying their place of residence alone, or only with household members who are also serving SHN. These household members must have the same travel history and be serving the same duration of SHN.

Feature Image: Sing Studio / Shutterstock.com