GGRAsia – S’pore reducing quarantine for some travellers Oct 6

S’pore reducing quarantine for some travellers Oct 6

Oct 04, 2021 Newsdesk Latest News, Singapore, Top of the deck

Singapore, home to a casino duopoly that seeks to draw on foreign players, will from 11.59pm on Wednesday (October 6) reduce the quarantine period for some inbound travellers, from 14 days to 10 days.

Such quarantine spell is known locally as a “stay-home notice”, or “SHN”. The news of the change was given by the authorities in a Saturday update.

This shorter quarantine duration will apply to those who within 14 days of arriving in Singapore, have been only to any of the following places: Austria, Bahrain, Bhutan, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, Fiji, Greece, Iceland, the Republic of Ireland, Latvia, Liechtenstein, the Maldives, Norway, Slovakia, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Singapore classifies these places as “Category III”. The ranking system used by the city-state to assess Covid-19 risk among visitors, goes from “Category I” of the least concern; to ‘Category IV”, the riskiest.

Travellers from Category III places will need to take one Covid-19 test when they arrive, and another on their 10th day in Singapore. They will also be required to take a self-administered antigen rapid test on their third and seventh day in the city-state.

The reduction in the quarantine period for such travellers is based on consideration of the “shorter incubation period” of the Covid-19 Delta variant, Singapore’s Ministry of Health said in a Saturday press statement.

Meanwhile, starting from 11.59 pm on October 6, the Singapore authorities are placing those arriving either from the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden, on its Category II list. Any travellers that have been in any of those places in the 14-days prior to their arrival in Singapore, have to do only a seven-day quarantine. Already on the Category II list, were: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, Poland, South Korea, and Saudi Arabia.

Fully-vaccinated travellers from either Brunei or Germany, can apply to be exempted from serving the quarantine order through Singapore’s “vaccinated travel lane” initiative.

Singapore’s authorities have also allowed travellers from either Macau or Hong Kong, quarantine-free entry starting from August 26, though the measure is not reciprocal, meaning people travelling from Singapore to either Macau or Hong Kong, will still have to comply with quarantine protocols in those cities, as well as with other applicable travel restrictions.