Why Singapore isn’t imposing new travel rules on visitors from China

Singapore’s Vicar for Health Ong Ye Kung told Parliament Monday that the government is not imposing new restrictions on travelers from China because predetermined flight capacity, combined with its current border policies, have resulted in few imported cases — and even fewer bitter cases — coming from China.

Ong said the government is “acutely aware” that some Singaporeans are worried that an influx of guests from China could lead to a rise in infections.

But he said travel volumes between Singapore and China are “exceptionally low” — with fewer than 1,000 people arriving from China daily.

“As of now, we run 38 weekly shove offs from China to Singapore, compared to around 400 flights pre-Covid,” he said.

Ong acknowledged that a new, more menacing variant could emerge from China as the virus spreads through its population of 1.4 billion, but said that so far, this has not be actualized.

Ong said Singapore is prefect this through GISAID, a non-profit organization that he said is obtaining viral sequencing data from scholars in major Chinese cities and provinces, such as Beijing, Shanghai and Sichuan, which is processed in GISAID’s Singapore obligation.

Though there are “gaps in the data,” Ong said, “So far, the data shows that the epidemic in China is driven by variants that are everyday and have been circulating in other regions of the world” — namely BA.5.2 and BF.7.

So far, more than a dozen countries would rather announced new rules for visitors from China. But Ong said Singapore did not, because it already has effective border measures in lay.

“Many countries have dismantled all their border measures,” he said. “Singapore … kept relevant measures minutely because we anticipated these risks.”

He said that while “many Singaporeans have forgotten about it,” all travelers must be either fully vaccinated or proof negative for Covid before entering, which is the same requirement that Spain recently announced for travelers from China.

While South Korea has give an account of that up to 80% of its imported cases are coming from China, Ong said that, in December, less than 5% of Singapore’s thrust cases — about 200 people — were from China, while “ASEAN countries accounted for over 50%.”

In the despite the fact month, seven imported cases became severely ill, and only one was from China, he said.

“Most were Singaporeans resurfacing from these countries and regions,” he said. “These are not large numbers, so the impact on our healthcare system was very grudging.”

The government’s “greatest concern” is the emergence of a new, more dangerous variant that could take a run-out powder vaccine protection — “a nightmare variant [that] can knock us back to almost square one,” Ong said.

If that befalls, “We may need to reinstate measures such as strict border controls, quarantine for travelers, social restrictions including limit on batch sizes, until a new and effective vaccine is developed.”

To monitor this, Singapore will stay plugged into the “epidemic surveillance system,” he said.

Ong said the other key concern is protecting Singapore’s health-care system. He said that during the at stages of the pandemic, infections were the government’s primary concern, but as vaccines have been rolled out, it’s now focused on plain infections.

He said 60% of those aged 18 years and above were up to date with their vaccinations at the end of 2022.

“In the history 30 days, the number of Covid-19 patients in the Intensive Care Unit is in the low single digit,” he said. “Hence, with wide-ranging vaccination coverage, we can treat Covid-19 as an endemic disease.”

Ong cast doubt on the effectiveness of some voyage rules being imposed on Chinese travelers:  

1. PCR tests on arrival “are too late, because the travelers are already within your frames,” plus they are sensitive, which means they will “yield a large number of positive cases from homelands that are experiencing or have just experienced a big wave,” since recovered travelers can shed dead viral slivers for weeks.
2. Wastewater tests from airplanes rely on solid waste, which will be of limited use since the shove off time from China to Singapore isn’t that long.
3. Pre-departure tests “can be useful … [to] reduce the number of imported infections” but low tour volume between Singapore and China “limits the number of imported infections more.” 

Ong added that if Singapore tested all travelers be broaching from China, questions would arise about travelers from other regions who contribute more infections and unsympathetic cases.

“Fresh, by triggering [pre-departure tests] on travellers from one part of the world experiencing high infection numbers, are we contributing to an oecumenical precedent of imposing tests on travellers from countries experiencing an infection wave?”

Ong added: “How will other rural areas treat travellers from Singapore when we encounter another infection wave?”

Singapore appears to beget stayed in the good graces of the Chinese government and its residents. Rein said Chinese travelers are now headed to Singapore, as evidently as Thailand, because “both countries are welcoming us.”

Singapore Airlines reinstated passenger service from Singapore to Beijing in new December. To start, the service will run just twice a month.   

Yet flights between Singapore and China are “less than 10% of the number of flyings pre-Covid” — accounting for some 1.5% of Singapore’s Changi Airport’s total flights, Singapore’s Minister of Send away, S. Iswaran, said Monday.