37,000 have entered Republic using travel lane scheme

About 37,000 people have entered Singapore using the Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) scheme, with about 20,000 of these short-term visitors or long-term pass holders.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) said yesterday that the 37,001 VTL travellers who have entered Singapore as at Thursday night comprise 20,510 vaccinated travel pass holders - who are tourists or long-term pass holders - 14,788 Singapore citizens and permanent residents, and 1,703 children aged 12 and below.

The numbers are derived from vaccinated travel pass applications that CAAS has received. Children aged 12 and below are unvaccinated, and do not need to apply for a vaccinated travel pass.

Singapore has announced the opening of VTLs with six more countries, bringing the total number of places it has such arrangements with to 27. The six new VTL countries are Cambodia, Fiji, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Turkey.

Before the pandemic, the 27 nations - including the United States, Germany and Britain, - made up about 60 per cent of total daily arrivals at Changi Airport. But with travel quotas in place now, there are far fewer travellers coming in than before.

CAAS said that as at Thursday, it had issued 79,335 vaccinated travel passes to long-term pass holders and foreign travellers for trips to Singapore between Sept 8 and Jan 27.

A total of 12,354 of these passes went to travellers from Britain, 10,922 to those from Germany, and 10,213 to those from the US. These three countries so far have the most number of travellers with approved vaccinated travel passes.

But vaccinated travel passes issued to travellers from Malaysia, Indonesia and India - applications for which opened just this week - are fast catching up. Together, they account for 17,134 vaccinated travel passes, including 6,704 travel passes issued to travellers from Malaysia. For Indonesia, the figure is 4,798, and for India, 5,632.

Travellers from Australia have been issued 6,280 vaccinated travel passes, those from South Korea visitors have received 5,338, and France, 6,055.

In most instances, there were more long-term pass holder applicants than short-term visitors.

Among countries with a larger travel volume, only Australia, South Korea, Indonesia and India have had more short-term visitor applications than long-term pass holder ones.

Separately, travellers from six European countries will have to serve a 10-day stay-home notice (SHN) from Dec 1, as the Covid-19 situation is worsening in these countries, said the Ministry of Health (MOH) yesterday.

The countries - Austria, Belgium, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Liechtenstein and Slovakia - will be reclassified into Category III of MOH's Covid-19 risk assessment framework for border measures from 11.59pm on Dec 1.

Travellers from these countries currently have to serve a seven-day SHN at a declared place of accommodation.

Border measures will be relaxed for 10 countries that were previously in Category III - Argentina, Kuwait, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Romania and Thailand, said MOH. These countries will be placed in Category II from 11.59pm on Dec 1. This means travellers from these places will have to serve a seven-day SHN at their place of residence, a self-sourced hotel or a serviced apartment; down from 10 days previously.

MOH added that Belize, Costa Rica, Kazakhstan, Mauritius, Panama, Peru and Uruguay will be moved to Category III - from Category IV - from 11.59pm on Dec 1.

According to MOH, Category 1 comprises places with the lowest risk of Covid-19 transmission. Those in Category II have Covid-19 risk profiles similar to Singapore's and those in Category III are deemed to be at higher risk of Covid-19 infections.