The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Tuesday (7 Sep) has warned against travel to Brunei, Sri Lanka, and Jamaica amid the spike in the number of COVID-19 cases there.
According to its website, the CDC has raised its travel advisory to “Level 4: Very High” for the three countries, warning Americans to avoid travelling to these countries due to the current COVID-19 situation there.
Brunei reported a total of 116 new infections as of Wednesday (8 Sep), bringing the total number of cases to 3,683.
Sri Lanka reported 2,917 new cases on Wednesday, while Jamaica had 672 new infections on Tuesday.
Those who have to travel to these countries must be fully vaccinated before travel, said the CDC, but it cautioned that “even fully vaccinated travellers may be at risk for getting and spreading COVID-19 variants”.
The CDC has also eased its ratings for the Netherlands, Malta, Guine-Bissau, and United Arab Emirates from “Level 4: Very High” to “Level 3: High”, which urges unvaccinated Americans to avoid travel to these destinations.
It raised the advisory level for Australia from “Level 1: Low” to “Level 2: Moderate”, which is the same category as Singapore, where travellers are urged to be fully vaccinated before travelling to the country.
Reuters reported that the CDC issued travel recommendations by countries and for US territories but does not list recommendations for individual US states.
It currently lists about 80 destinations out of around 200 ranked as Level 4, including some US territories.
Singapore opens vaccinated travel lane scheme for Brunei
Over in Singapore, it was reported last week that 735 travellers from Germany and 20 visitors from Brunei have received vaccinated travel passes to enter Singapore on the first day of application.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) noted that 301 of the passes issued to Germany were to short-term visitors and 434 to long-term pass holders as of 1 Sep.
For Brunei, 18 of the passes were issued to short-term visitors and two to long-term pass holders.
CAAS noted that the passes are for travel between 8 Sep and 7 Oct, with the first flight from Germany and Brunei expected to arrive on 8 Sep and 9 Sep respectively.
Under the vaccinated travel lanes, fully vaccinated travellers departing from these countries will be allowed to enter Singapore without serving a stay-home notice.
They will instead be required to undergo multiple COVID-19 PCR tests – a pre-departure test within 48 hours of the scheduled departure flight, an on-arrival test at Changi Airport, and post-arrival tests on Day 3 and Day 7 of their stay at any one of the designated clinics in Singapore.
Additionally, travellers must also have stayed in their home country of departure and/or Singapore in the last 21 consecutive days before their departure. Those entering Singapore must also travel on non-stop designated flights and these flights will only be for vaccinated travel lane travellers.
Under the scheme, short-term visitors and long-term pass holders will also have to apply for a Vaccinated Travel Pass (VTP) to Singapore.
Besides that, short-term visitors must also buy travel insurance, with a minimum coverage of S$30,000, before travelling to Singapore.
