US Finally Changes Travel Threat Level of S’pore from ‘Unknown’ to ‘High’


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It has been over two years ever since COVID-19 struck. As we attempt to adapt and keep the pandemic under control, several variants have emerged along the way.

Since early January this year, Singapore has been trying to contain the Omicron variant.

But that wasn’t all that happened since the start of 2022.

On 4 January, the United States Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reclassified its COVID-19 travel advisory for Singapore.

It discouraged Americans from visiting our nation citing reasons that the level of diseases here is “Unknown”.

Image: US CDC

In less than a week, the US CDC has now repositioned themselves on the matter.

US Changes Travel Threat Level of Singapore to ‘High’

Now, we’re at “High” instead.

Previously, the US CDC said that Singapore lacked testing data updates since November last year.

Since then, the authorities in Singapore have been in touch with the CDC. We have also given the necessary statistics to the US Embassy.

In case you didn’t know, the United States has four levels of travel advisories with regards to COVID-19.

  • Low – Level 1
  • Moderate – Level 2
  • High – Level 3
  • Very high – Level 4

The level unknown has been excluded.

So you may ask, what does level 3 mean for us?

In the US’ updated status for Singapore, Americans should make certain that they are fully vaccinated before travelling here. Should travellers be unvaccinated, they are encouraged to avoid any non-essential travel.

Other countries that are also on the ‘high’ risk list

According to the US CDC’s website, there are presently 53 other countries in the same tier as us at the time of writing.

Some notable countries that are geographically closer to us include:

  • Australia
  • Brunei
  • Laos
  • Malaysia
  • South Korea
  • Thailand
  • Vietnam

That feels better, because previously, the “Unknown” tier is for regions like…North Korea, which is really unknown.


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Health Minister Ong Ye Kung’s Take on This Matter

Minister Ong highlighted at a recent press conference that “we know our situation very well.”

To add on, he cited that more than 150,000 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests are executed weekly in Singapore.

That accounts for approximately more than 21,000 tests on average daily.

Mr Ong also noted that the positive COVID-19 rates for the PCR tests are under 2%.

Meanwhile, our COVID-19 infection growth rate, unfortunately, continues to climb.


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Yesterday (10 Jan), it inched up to 1.83 from the previous 1.80 on Sunday. There were also 750 new cases reported in Singapore.

P.S. Anything more than one as an infection growth rate means that the number of new weekly COVID-19 cases are rising.

But at least that is known.

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Featured Image: US CDC