NEW DELHI: Singapore on Wednesday imposed restrictions on air journey amid rising circumstances of Omicron variant of Covid-19 and stated airways is not going to be allowed to promote new flight tickets for journey to the nation from December 23 to January 20. Travellers, who’ve purchased tickets earlier, shall be allowed to journey below the quarantine-free Vaccinated Journey Lane (VTL) scheme.
The VTL permits totally vaccinated travellers from chosen nations to enter Singapore with out being quarantined.
Travellers from Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, Canada, Denmark, Fiji, Finland, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Maldives, the Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, the UK and the US can fly to Singapore below VTL scheme.
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A Singapore Airline spokesperson stated they may cease accepting new bookings from December 23 to January 20 (each dates inclusive). “This follows the Singapore authorities’s directive to droop new ticket gross sales on designated VTL flights for entry into Singapore throughout this time.
” Passengers with confirmed bookings on VTL flights is not going to be affected by this directive and will proceed their journey as deliberate, the spokesperson added. “There isn’t a change to present VTL or take a look at necessities, and travellers with present bookings might enter Singapore quarantine free so long as they meet all VTL necessities.”
Singapore is the most recent nation in Southeast Asia to droop reopening efforts in an try to purchase time towards the extra transmissible variant after Thailand halted its quarantine-free entry program this week, a Bloomberg report stated. In Australia, there’s strain from medical specialists to carry again necessary mask-wearing and density limits, whereas New Zealand has pushed again the phased reopening of its border till the top of February as a result of omicron variant risk.
Singapore can be instructing individuals getting back from abroad to keep away from high-risk mask-off actions similar to eating at eating places or exercising in gyms for seven days after arrival, even when they take a look at detrimental every day. Beforehand, returnees had been allowed to maneuver freely as soon as they examined detrimental.
Singapore’s native circumstances have plunged from a day by day excessive of greater than 4,600 in late October to simply 221 on Dec. 21, based on Ministry of Well being knowledge. Nonetheless, imported circumstances — most of them Omicron — are on the rise to greater than 50 every day, Bloomberg stated.