SINGAPORE, May 5 — All new travellers arriving from higher-risk countries and regions must serve a 21-day stay-home notice — up from 14 days — at a dedicated facility from 11.59pm on Friday (May 7), the Ministry of Health (MOH) said.
It said yesterday that with the global situation worsening, the assessed travel history period will also be increased to 21 days instead of the existing 14-day requirement.
Higher-risk countries and regions refer to all countries or regions except Australia, Brunei, China, New Zealand, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau.
Travellers who are now serving their 14-day stay-home notice and will not complete their stay by 11.59pm on May 7 must serve another seven days at their current location to minimise movement and risk of transmission.
These travellers will undergo Covid-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests on arrival, on Day 14 of their stay-home notice and just before the end of their stay.
MOH also announced tighter restrictions on the following groups of travellers:
1. From 11.59pm on May 7, travellers who have stayed in Fiji and Vietnam for the past consecutive 21 days before arrival in Singapore will be subjected to 21-day stay-home notice at dedicated facilities, with the option to serve the last seven days at their place of residence.
Right now, travellers who had been in these two countries in the last 14 days are allowed to serve their 14-day stay-home notice in their place of residence.
For those who are still serving out the notice at 11.59pm on May 7, they will be allowed to complete the remainder of the 14 days at their current location and their extra seven days at their place of residence, instead of at dedicated stay-home notice facilities.
2. Travellers from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa and the United Kingdom who are already required to serve a 21-day stay-home notice must do so at a dedicated facility from 11.59pm on May 7.
Travellers who have yet to complete their 21-day stay-home order by this time will have to complete it at their current location to minimise movement and risk of transmission.
Education Minister Lawrence Wong, who co-chairs the multi-ministry task force dealing with the pandemic, said in a Facebook post last night that unlike other large resource-rich countries, Singapore cannot afford to close its borders for a prolonged period.
As Singapore needs migrant workers, its approach is “not to shut our borders permanently, but to manage them on a risk-based approach”, which is why it has implemented the latest measures given the global Covid-19 situation.
“Despite our best efforts, we cannot rely on border measures alone to control the infection. We must continue to do our part within the community to reduce interactions too and observe safe distancing rules,” he wrote.
“Hence the need for the tighter community measures. By applying the full suite of measures and tools, we will give ourselves the best chance of bringing the current outbreak of cases under control.” — TODAY
