By Elishya Perera
SINGAPORE (CWBN)_The Bureau of Consular Affairs of the US Department of State lowered the travel risk for Singapore from Level 3 to Level 1 last week, following an extended period of low COVID-19 infections.
In the beginning of August, the Asian country was given an advisory rating of Level 3, which warned travellers to reconsider their visits, owing to risks related to the pandemic. However, this level of risk was lowered on Wednesday (Dec 9), which conveys the message on the country’s effective handling of the pandemic.
Several minutes ago, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong addressed the nation, giving an update on the COVID-19 situation in Singapore. The Prime Minister said that while Singapore peaked at over a thousand new infections a day back in March and April, however now, in contrast, zero cases of local transmissions are reported on most days.
According to Lee, the expansion of testing capacities and procedures, including Rostered Routine Testing of higher risk groups, Antigen Rapid Tests to resume larger gatherings safely, as well as effective contact tracing procedures enable the country to contain the spread of the virus.
During his address, the Prime Minister announced that the Health Sciences Authority of Singapore has approved the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for pandemic use. Accordingly, the first shipment of the vaccines is expected by the end of this month. Lee noted that the government anticipates availability of vaccines for everyone in Singapore by the third quarter of 2021.
The Prime Minister also said that the country is prepared to progress to phase 3 in a couple of weeks, following which, capacity limits in public places such as restaurants, malls and places of worship, will be eased.
He further noted that the government intends to re-open the country’s borders in a controlled and safe manner. Lee pointed out that trade and travel are the “lifeblood” of Singapore. “The longer our borders stay closed to travellers, the greater the risk of us permanently losing out as an international hub, consequently hurting our livelihoods.”
Under such circumstances, the United States lowering the travel risk for Singapore would be advantageous for the country which is attempting to revive its trade and tourism industries.
However, it has not yet been determined if Singapore would permit travellers from countries which are currently reporting a significant number of infections, such as the United States, since Lee noted that “the Government will take every precaution and do our best to prevent imported cases from triggering a new outbreak.”
Apart from Singapore, a handful of other countries were given the lowest risk level, which included Macau, Taiwan, New Zealand and Thailand.
