Singapore & Malaysia reopening borders on April 1

Beginning from April 1, Singapore and its close neighbour Malaysia will reopen their borders to fully vaccinated individuals of both nations, with COVID-19 testing and quarantine no longer required.

This is going to galvanise short-term journey between these two Southeast Asia allies. It is good news for Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World Sentosa, the two merged casino resorts in Singapore.

The casino resorts in the island city-state started enjoying the return of visitors last fall when Singapore started its Vaccinated Travel Lanes (VTL) campaign. The travel arrangement allows those with full vaccination to enter and depart Singapore without quarantine, as long as they show a negative COVID-19 test.

Singapore’s VTL campaign is still on for citizens of several countries seen to have COVID-19 under control. The list of qualified countries includes Malaysia, the United States, and the United Kingdom, not also neglecting their neighbouring countries like Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam.

While the VTL campaign has greatly helped, travel and gaming experts say traffic will increase significantly with the April 1 stopping of compulsory testing for fully vaccinated travellers from Malaysia.

Singapore is expecting a large influx of people come April 1. Together with countries stopping COVID-19 testing for fully vaccinated Malaysians, the 4,000 people cap of same-day visitors into Singapore will no longer be invoked.

“The two countries enjoy rich, warm and diverse relations, as well as good people-to-people relationships,” stated Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong last week. He further noted that the remover of testing for Malaysian citizens is an “important milestone in our move towards living with COVID-19”.

Before the pandemic more than 400,000 people traversed the two crossings daily. Singapore is linked to Malaysia via the Johor-Singapore Causeway and also the Second Link Bridge.

Joined with increased travels, the April 1 lifting of COVID-related border protocols will aid the return of workers to Singapore’s two multibillion-dollar casino resorts. A large portion of the workforce at Sands and Resorts World comes from Malaysia. Those workers are restless about not being able to return home if they get infected with COVID while working in Singapore.

After two years of restrictions, government authorities in both nations are urging their citizens to wait for a while before embarking on leisure travels to other nations.

A recent notice from the Singapore Ministry of Trade and Industry said: “There might be a large number of travellers to cross through the land borders; travellers will see huge traffic congestion at the entry points. The public are advised not to rust to travel if they don’t have an immediate need to do so.”

More gambling news