Singapore shuts borders to students, travellers over Omicron concerns

Singapore travel restrictions, banning entries from all 24 countries it has agreements with for quarantine-free travel, are now in place as the government responds to the Omicron variant. It has frozen ticket sales for flights and bus trips under its vaccinated travel lanes for entry from Dec. 23 to Jan. 20.

Those who have already bought their tickets will still be able to travel.

“Our border measures will help to buy us 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,” the Ministry of Health said in a statement. Singapore will also temporarily reduce quotas and ticket sales for travel after Jan. 20, the ministry added.

Omicron has fast become the dominant COVID-19 strain in many countries since it emerged about a month ago. The variant has been found in Singapore, which has tentatively opened its borders to select countries since October after abandoning a COVID-Zero approach still pursued by the likes of China and Hong Kong.

Singapore is the latest country in Southeast Asia to suspend its reopening efforts in an attempt to buy time against the more transmissible variant after Thailand halted its quarantine-free entry programme this week. In Australia, there’s pressure from state leaders to speed up booster shots, while New Zealand has pushed back the phased reopening of its border until the end of February due to the Omicron variant threat.

Read Singapore’s Immigration and Checkpoints Authority’s (ICA) full statement for more information.

International students would need to wait until Singapore travel restrictions have been lifted before they are able to continue their education. Until then, we will be keeping track of any new developments that might come up from Singapore. Stay tuned for more Singapore travel restrictions news with us.