COVID-19 Omicron Variant's Impact on Vaccinated Travel Lanes
Ministry of TransportSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns an update requested by Mr Christopher de Souza on the impact of the COVID-19 Omicron variant on Vaccinated Travel Lanes (VTLs). Minister for Transport S Iswaran detailed how the government halted VTL expansion, deferred launches to three countries, and maintained the daily air traveller quota at 10,000. He highlighted that new ticket sales were frozen between December 2021 and January 2022, followed by a 50% limit on daily arrivals and enhanced daily testing requirements. These measures were implemented to allow time to study the variant and strengthen healthcare capacity, including vaccination and booster efforts, while managing imported case risks. Minister for Transport S Iswaran concluded that current assessment finds these protocols sufficient as Omicron is less severe and vaccination continues to provide protection against severe illness.
Transcript
14 Mr Christopher de Souza asked the Minister for Transport whether he can provide an update on how the COVID-19 Omicron variant is impacting Vaccinated Travel Lanes.
Mr S Iswaran: We started the Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) scheme in September 2021 and, by end November, had progressively expanded the scheme to 27 countries. On 26 November 2021, the World Health Organization designated the Omicron variant as a Variant of Concern. In response, we halted the expansion of the VTL scheme to more countries and deferred the launch of the VTL scheme to Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as a precautionary move. We also decided to maintain the daily quota of VTL (Air) travellers at 10,000 rather than increase it to 15,000 as we had earlier intended.
On 22 December 2021, given the rapid and global spread of the Omicron variant, we froze the sale of new VTL flight and bus tickets for entry into Singapore from 23 December 2021 to 20 January 2022. We have also imposed a 50% limit on the daily number of VTL travellers from 21 January 2022. These were calibrated moves that balanced the need to manage the risk of imported Omicron cases while minimising disruption to travellers who had already made VTL bookings to enter Singapore.
In addition, we tightened the testing regime for VTL travellers. Besides the pre-departure and on-arrival COVID-19 tests, VTL travellers are required to undergo daily self-administered Antigen Rapid Tests (ARTs) on Days 2 to 7 of their arrival in Singapore, and those who test positive are required to undergo a confirmatory Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test. Whilst these enhanced measures may have caused some inconvenience for travellers, they were necessary to give us valuable time to study and understand the Omicron variant and to strengthen our defences, including enhancing our healthcare capacity and getting more people vaccinated and boosted.
International evidence indicates that the Omicron variant, while more transmissible, is less severe, and vaccination, especially with boosting, continues to provide good protection from severe illness. For now, MOH’s assessment is that the enhanced testing regime and limits on the number of VTL arrivals are sufficient to manage the public health risk. We will continue to work closely with MOH to regularly review our border measures and protocols.