There is now talk within the Singapore government of reopening up to the rest of the world. Although she will be cautious. Health Minister Ong Ye Kung has just announced that it would consider allow foreigners and Singaporeans alike to travel to and from a handful of countries. Those whose vaccination is high and whose low contamination rate. The list includes the United States, Hong Kong and certain European Union countries.
In an interview with the Straits Times newspaper, the Minister explained that "once the infection rate (Covid-19) in a place decreases, vaccinations increase and you get below, say, two or three infections per 100,000, we should start looking at these countries seriously".
Hesitation waltz
Singapore has so far tried toopen its borders to two countries and territoriesthe Malaysia and Hong Kong. A new wave of Covids has put an end to travel restrictions with Malaysia. As for Singapore-Hong Kong travel bubbleIt was twice postponed. This was due to the appearance of a handful of contaminations in one city or another.
Singapore's dithering over its reopening to the outside world weighs heavily on the town's activity. In particular, his role as major trading centre.
On 29 June, for example, the management of Singapore's ITB Asia tourism fair announced that it was abandoning a physical event in favour of a totally virtual one. For the Minister for Health, the Singapore reopens is currently more concerned with thethe absence of local clusters than to the rate of people vaccinated. However, a new decontamination phase has been announced for the city-state on 12 July..
"We can't expect people to live like this forever - restricting themselves, not meeting friends, not being able to travel", the Minister concedes in his interview.
