Lawrence Wong: S’pore Will Allow Overseas Travel Using Risk-Based Approach

It feels like we jinx ourselves every time we talk of “overseas travel”—case in point: here. But I guess there was no avoiding the question that Singaporeans so desperately want to know the answer to.

Well, apart from when the COVID-19 pandemic will end already. We all want an answer to that.

Lawrence Wong: S’pore Will Allow Overseas Travel Using Risk-Based Approach

According to The Straits Times, Finance Minister Lawrence Wong, who co-chairs the Ministerial Task Force (MTF), said that a “risk-based approach” will be taken to allow Singaporeans to travel in the coming months.

Sounds… risky. So what does this mean?

Basically, visitors—both travellers and returning residents—who enter Singapore from a country that is deemed as “safe” (in terms of COVID-19) will not need to be quarantined when they arrive here.

On the other hand, those who arrive from countries that are “unsafe” will have to serve quarantine in a dedicated facility as per usual.

When asked whether Singapore will allow its people to travel freely in the scenario of full vaccination, or if it would wait until other countries in the region catch up in vaccinating their people, Mr Wong expressed that it would depend on the condition of the pandemic in other countries.

He explained that if the situation in more countries improves and they are deemed as safe (such as having a high vaccination rate and low numbers of infection), our island will be able to open up to these areas.

However, if these countries are dealing with a raging surge of cases, border and quarantine measures in Singapore will remain as they are.

Mr Wong noted that the government has been using this same approach since the start of the pandemic last year, evident by our border measures which are differentiated and adjusted based on each country’s infection rates and corresponding risk levels.

Health Minister Ong Ye Kung, who was previously Minister for Transport and handled the (ultimately unsuccessful) travel bubbles, said that Singapore is working towards the resumption of travel with as few restrictions as possible. For instance, the removal of the gruelling 21-day Stay-Home Notice (SHN) upon returning from overseas.

I have to say, this poor man really can’t catch a break.

While all of us “hope to resume that normalcy”, Mr Ong cautioned, “I think the truth is we don’t have enough data to decide whether lifting all those restrictions is possible as of now.”

“But certainly we are heading in the right direction if we can get ourselves substantially vaccinated, protected,” he added.

Missed PM Lee’s speech and the MTF’s press conference yesterday (31 May)? Read about the five must-know things he said in his speech yesterday!

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