Vehicles lined up at the Orchard Road Test Station in Christchurch, Singapore.
Adam Bradley/Getty Images
- Starting next week, Singapore will allow vaccinated tourists from Germany and Brunei to enter the country without isolation.
- Although this cautious approach may delay the recovery of the tourism industry, other countries with low infection rates will pay close attention.
- Vaccination is the backbone of Singapore’s reopening plan. The economy shrank by a record 5.4% last year and it cannot afford to close for too long.
Ronney Ng, who sells souvenirs in Singapore’s Chinatown, can’t wait to wait for the country to reopen its borders because 80% of its population has been vaccinated with Covid-19, one of the best vaccination rates in the world.
“Our business is almost entirely dependent on tourists; if they don’t come to Singapore, it will be very difficult for us,” Wu said, adding that he can no longer afford three meals a day.
This regional tourism center with approximately 5.7 million residents was one of the first countries in the region to reopen, albeit at a slow pace. In almost all public places, masks are still mandatory, the number of groups is limited, and contact tracing applications are required.
Starting next week, Singapore will allow vaccinated tourists from Germany and Brunei to enter the country without isolation.
Although this cautious approach may delay the recovery of the tourism industry, other countries with low infection rates will pay close attention.
Peter Collignon, an infectious disease doctor and microbiologist at Canberra Hospital, said:
Singapore is a good example of Australia that deserves attention, because we may be in a similar situation-we need to be open, we need to do it in a Covid-19 epidemic.
Other countries in the Asia-Pacific region, such as New Zealand and Taiwan, have also achieved early success in fighting the virus, but they are still closed.
Israel, with a population of 9.3 million and a high vaccination rate, has restored many restrictive measures after a surge in cases caused by the Delta variant, including mandatory indoor masks and quarantine for most people entering the country.
At the same time, although there are a large number of cases every day, the UK is still sticking to its easing plan, including relaxing quarantine regulations.
Step by step
Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Sunday: “We will act step by step-not overnight like in some countries, but cautiously and incrementally exploring the way forward.” Even if the lock is long, it will return to zero.
Last week, the number of new cases per day remained at more than 100, close to the recent peak that prompted the tightening of containment measures. However, the number of critically ill patients is small; according to government data, on September 1, 19 patients needed oxygen and 5 patients were in the intensive care unit.
In Singapore, most people 12 years of age and older have been vaccinated, and the government is considering vaccinating children early next year. After a slow start, the percentage of people aged 70 and above has been pushed up to 84%.
Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota, said: “Even if 20% of the population is unprotected, this is a real challenge for this virus. It still leads to a potential increase in cases and hospitalizations. “, who praised Singapore for sharing information about breakthrough vaccine cases.
Vaccination is the backbone of Singapore’s reopening plan. The economy shrank by a record 5.4% last year and it cannot afford to close for too long.
The Southeast Asian neighbors of India and Singapore are still struggling with high infection rates and low vaccination rates, and the probability of adopting a zero Covid strategy to welcome many travelers from China is very low.
Colignon said:
Even if you are in a wealthy country like Singapore and Australia… it is in our own interest to ensure that we vaccinate everyone.
In 2019, Singapore welcomed a record 19.1 million tourists, more than three times its total population, with China, Indonesia and India contributing 40%.
Sung Eun Jung of Oxford Economics estimates that tourism contributes as much as 11% to Singapore’s economy. But she said that Singapore’s strict reopening plan means that the industry may not reach pre-pandemic levels until 2023.
After experiencing a record recession in 2020, the country’s economy this year is expected to grow by 6%-7%.
For now, the hard-hit tourism industry dare not hold out much hope. The few shops in the most visited places in Singapore have only tragic stories-poor sales, closed shops and unemployment.
Amir Khan, who sold carpets to customers in Southeast Asia, Europe and China before the pandemic, said that he hadn’t had a customer in his store in the Malay Heritage Enclave for several days.
“The slower the reopening, the longer we will suffer,” Khan said.
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