SINGAPORE - Travellers staying in hotels and havebeen tested positive for Covid-19, or have been identified as close contact of a Covid-19 case and received a Health Risk Warning (HRW), should recover or isolate in their rooms by default from next Monday (Dec 20).

Those who havetested positive for the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test are required to recover in their rooms and will be issued an Isolation Order (IO).

Those who are fully vaccinated will be issued an IO for 10 days, while those who are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated will be issued an IO for 14 days. Thereafter, they will be discharged without further tests.

The IO will supersede any testing requirements they may have originally been subject to (like the enhanced testing regime for travellers on the Vaccinated Travel Lane). Hence, travellers under IO should not leave their room to undergo these tests.

In a release on Thursday (Dec 16), the Singapore Tourism Board said that this will more closely align recovery protocols for visitors staying in hotels who test positive for Covid-19 with the protocols for local community cases.

Hotel guests who have a home in Singapore and wish to recover there will have to seek the hotels' help to arrange for the Ministry of Health to take them to their accommodation.

Telemedicine support will be made available to guests recovering in their rooms but they will still have to pay for the costs associated with recovery, testing and treatment, including any necessary extended stay in hotels or care facilities.

Travellers on the Vaccinated Travel Laneand those who have travel history in the last 10 days and have beentested positive on an ART must undergo a confirmatory PCR test at a Combined Test Centre and self-isolate until they receive their results.

Travellers who receive a HRW should isolate themselves in their room or home, take ART on the same day and upload the results onto this website.

If the test is negative, they may proceed with their normal activities and will need to continue to test ART negative each day from the second to the seventh day before going out.

If they test positive, they are required to isolate themselves for the next 72 hours and re-test with an ART after that.

They can only resume normal activities once the result is negative and should seek medical attention immediately if they are unwell at any time.