Singapore-Malaysia border reopening: vaccinated travel lane for quarantine-free entry agreed
- Singapore also announces travel schemes with Finland and Sweden, meaning it now has deals with 16 countries
- The city state is also to ease some restrictions, including on dining out for vaccinated people from the same household, with health minister Ong Ye Kung describing the situation in the region as ‘fast stabilising’
The two neighbours will launch a vaccinated travel lane between Changi Airport and Kuala Lumpur International Airport from November 29, a route that before the pandemic was among the busiest air routes in the world, with about 40 flights daily.
The news came as Singapore announced it would expand its vaccinated travel lane scheme to 16 countries in total, while loosening domestic restrictions even as it continues to grapple with a weekly infection growth rate of just below 1.0, which means the number of new weekly cases are falling but not as quickly as hoped.
Announcing the travel lane on Monday, Singapore’s transport minister S. Iswaran said Malaysia was the city state’s “closest neighbour”. “Our two countries are deeply intertwined with long-standing economic and people-to-people ties, undergirding these ties is a close connectivity between our countries.”
