The Ministry of Health (MOH) announced on Thursday (19 Aug) that Singapore will allow travellers who have been fully vaccinated under the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Emergency Use Listing (EUL) to be eligible for vaccination-differentiated safety measures.
In a statement, MOH said that the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) will start issuing tamper-proof stickers to arrivals who have been fully inoculated with a vaccine under the WHO EUL from 11.59pm on Friday (20 Aug).
The vaccines listed in the WHO’s EUL include Pfizer-BioNTech/Comirnaty, Moderna, AstraZeneca, Sinova-CoronaVac, and Sinopharm.
MOH noted that travellers who wish to obtain the stickers are required to produce their English-language vaccination certificates to ICA officers at the Singapore immigration checkpoints upon arrival.
Currently, only Singapore citizens, permanent residents (PRs), and long-term pass holders with vaccination records in the National Immunisation Registry are eligible for the vaccination-differentiated safe management measures.
All other incoming travellers were previously required to obtain a negative pre-event test by an MOH-approved test provider that will be valid for 24 hours in order to be eligible for such differentiated measures.
MOH’s announcement on Thursday will be applicable to travellers including Singapore citizens, PRs, long-term pass holders, and short-term visit pass holders from overseas.
The Ministry further stated that IT systems will also be enhanced by September to enable travellers – upon verification of their eligible vaccination status at entry – to be recognised by the SafeEntry (Business) App through their TraceTogether tokens or mobile apps.
This will in turn make them eligible for vaccination-differentiated safe management measures without needing to go through pre-event testing.
Netizens question Government’s authentication of travellers’ vaccination certs
Penning their thoughts under the comments section of The Straits Times’ and Channel NewsAsia’s Facebook posts, many netizens raised concern about the possibility of overseas travellers using counterfeit vaccination certificates to gain entry into Singapore.
One netizen wrote: “The key question is how does the authority determine the certificate is indeed valid.”
“Will there be any on the spot due diligence checks? Fake certifications are easily passed off and would circumvent the current govt protocols by overwhelming the system,” said another netizen.
Some netizens questioned if fully vaccinated travellers under the WHO EUL will still be required to take a serology test upon arrival in Singapore.
