Day trips to Johor unlikely to resume for some time: Observers

Singaporeans should not expect to resume day trips to Johor anytime soon, despite talks on the reopening of land borders with Malaysia gaining steam.

Observers expect the reopening to likely be just for long-term pass holders at the start, with time needed to smooth out potential operational issues.

This means that the number of people crossing the checkpoints will be a far cry from what it was before the Covid-19 pandemic, when about 415,000 people crossed the Woodlands Causeway and the Tuas Second Link daily.

The observers' comments come after Johor Menteri Besar Hasni Mohammad said on Thursday that the vaccinated travel lane (VTL) for land borders between Singapore and Johor will start on Nov 29. He had said the scheme will cover only long-term pass holders, such as those working in Singapore or Johor Baru.

The Ministry of Trade and Industry said in response that it hopes to finalise details of the VTL scheme soon. It added that one of its priorities will be to allow workers to reunite with their families.

Mr Steven Ler, president of the National Association of Travel Agents Singapore, said he expects the reopening to be done in stages at a controlled pace.

He said the authorities will have to work out how to ease the queues at immigration counters as extra documents related to Covid-19 need to be checked.

He suggested that the land VTL could have a requirement for Covid-19 test results to be valid for 48 hours after entering the other country. This would allow short round trips between Singapore and Malaysia without people having to take multiple tests, he said.

Associate Professor Walter Theseira of the Singapore University of Social Sciences said the expected limit on travellers via the land VTL means there will be little relief for the Johor Baru tourism industry and Singapore firms facing manpower constraints.

"That scenario would simply be impossible unless the Covid-19 measures involved in crossing the border were as easy as showing vaccination proof through our respective countries' apps," he said.

Dr Leong Hoe Nam, an infectious diseases specialist at the Rophi Clinic at Mount Elizabeth Novena, said logistically, it would be almost impossible to apply the existing VTL requirement of on-arrival Covid-19 polymerase chain reaction tests at the land borders.

This is due to the large number of people wanting to cross the border daily.

"My preference is to do away with the Covid-19 polymerase chain reaction test... The more important matter is that the travellers are vaccinated with mutually agreed vaccines," he said.

Meanwhile, Assistant Professor Terence Fan at the Singapore Management University's Lee Kong Chian School of Business, who specialises in transport issues, noted several other operational challenges.

These include how to transport inbound travellers to a place where they can self-isolate while waiting for their Covid-19 test results, how the cap in number will be enforced, and who will be allowed to travel first.

Universiti Putra Malaysia epidemiologist Malina Osman told The Straits Times the existing protocols can apply to land VTL travellers. "I would recommend screening tests be done based on history of exposure as well, on top of weekly screenings," Dr Malina said.

Malaysian Public Health Physicians Association president Zainal Ariffin Omar said the risk for VTL with Singapore is the same as the risk for interstate travel within Malaysia.