SINGAPORE - From Monday (Dec 14), all travellers entering Singapore with travel history to Hong Kong in the previous two weeks must serve a 14-day stay-home notice (SHN) at dedicated facilities.
But they are allowed to opt out of serving the notice at dedicated facilities if they are occupying their place of residence alone, or with household members with the same travel history and SHN duration.
They must also not have travelled to any other place in the last two weeks except Fiji, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Hong Kong, Australia, Brunei, Macau, China, New Zealand, Taiwan and Vietnam.
The new requirement is stricter than the current one, where travellers from Hong Kong are allowed to serve a seven-day SHN at their place of residence.
The new restriction kicks in from 11.59pm on Sunday, said the Ministry of Health (MOH) on Friday night.
Additionally, from 11.59pm next Friday, all travellers entering Singapore - except Singapore citizens and permanent residents - who have travel history to Hong Kong in the past two weeks must take a Covid-19 polymerase chain reaction test within 72 hours before departure to the Republic. They will need to present a valid negative Covid-19 test to enter Singapore.
The ministry explained that the multi-ministry task force looking into Covid-19 has been closely monitoring the global Covid-19 situation, and will be tightening border measures due to the deteriorating outbreak situation in Hong Kong.
Meanwhile, there were eight new coronavirus cases confirmed on Friday, taking Singapore's total to 58,305.
One of the new cases was from a workers' dormitory, and there was none in the community. The last time there was a case from a workers' dormitory was on Dec 3.
The case from the workers' dormitory reported on Friday was asymptomatic and he was detected through the ministry's proactive surveillance. His close contacts at his dormitory and workplace have been quarantined.
The remaining seven new cases were imported and had been placed on SHNs or isolated on arrival in Singapore, said the ministry.
They include three Singaporeans aged between 19 and 52.
Two of them, who returned from Britain and United Arab Emirates, were asymptomatic while the third, who came back from Indonesia, showed symptoms on Dec 5.
The rest of the imported cases were two work permit holders, a dependant's pass holder and a short-term visit pass holder. They arrived from the Philippines, Britain, Malaysia and India.
MOH said the number of new cases in the community has remained low, with just one case in the past week, which was linked to a previous case.
