Vaccinated S’poreans May Be Able To Travel To Certain Countries From 2nd Half Of 2021: Ong Ye Kung

Singapore May Have Safe Travel Corridor With Selected Countries From 2nd Half Of 2021

In late Feb, talks of leisure travel resuming made many Singaporeans hopeful for an overseas holiday soon.

In fact, with large-scale vaccinations rolling out globally, Singapore might allow vaccinated individuals to travel to selected countries from the second half of 2021, said Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung in a radio interview.

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Together with testing, the corridors may allow travels to countries with low and moderate rates of infections.

Travel corridors could happen in later half of 2021

In an interview with Money FM 89.3 on Friday (12 Mar), Mr Ong said that vaccinated passengers may be able to travel to selected countries in the 2nd half of 2021.

This will possibly come in the form of safe travel corridors.

When vaccinations combine with rigorous testing, Singapore can open to countries even with moderate level of infections, said Mr Ong.

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He added that Singapore has already opened up to a few countries who have a handle on Covid-19. They include Australia, China, Taiwan, New Zealand and Vietnam.

However, he hopes that such openings can become bilateral some time this year.

This will then lead to air bubbles, which will enable personal and leisure travels.

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Some recovery of aviation sector this year

On Thursday (11 Mar), Mr Alexandre de Juniac, director of the International Air Transport Association (Iata) told ST that leisure travel will return from the later half of 2021.

Mr Ong responded to Mr de Juniac’s claim, saying that he shares the same view.

Outside Changi Airport
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However, he advised that it was “neither an estimate nor a prediction”, but more of “a guess”.

Given that Covid-19 remains a global emergency, there’ll be some improvement in our aviation sector, but definitely not one that is meteoric.

Hope travel restrictions will be eased further

Even though the virus continues to plague the planet, vaccines and testing might guide our way back to normality.

With worldwide inoculation underway, hopefully we can see border controls gradually lifted in the near future.

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Featured image adapted from Unsplash.