Coronavirus: Singapore to stop testing vaccinated visitors; most residents in Indonesia’s Java have Covid-antibodies

City state has already dropped most restrictions for inoculated travellers, and people can now arrive at Changi airport without quarantine or test on arrival

Elsewhere, study shows 99 per cent on Indonesia’s most populous island of Java have Covid antibodies, owing to a combination of prior infection and vaccination

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A couple walks past the Rain Vortex waterfall at the Jewel Changi airport mall in Singapore. The city state will soon eliminate Covid tests for vaccinated travellers. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 1:15pm, 19 Apr 2022Updated: 8:40pm, 19 Apr 2022

Singapore is targeting to remove all Covid-19 tests for fully-vaccinated visitors “very soon” possibly in the next few weeks, Keith Tan, chief executive of the nation’s tourism board, said in a forum in Manila on Tuesday.

The city state has already dropped most restrictions for inoculated travellers, and people can now arrive at Changi airport without having to quarantine or test on arrival. Visitors still have to do a test before entering the country.

Singapore would join a growing list of countries including the UK, Ireland, Norway and Jordan that have scrapped tests for arriving travellers. According to travel-booking site Kayak.com, more than 30 countries worldwide currently have no Covid-19 restrictions for most visitors. Some 158 have some requirements in place, while 36 nations are effectively closed, the site says.

Most residents in Java have Covid-antibodies

Almost all residents of Indonesia’s most populous island of Java have antibodies against Covid-19, owing to a combination of prior infection and vaccination against the virus, a government-commissioned survey showed.

The March study of 2,100 people, conducted on Java, home to 150 million people, and Bali, Indonesia’s top tourism destination, revealed 99.2 per cent of people had Covid-antibodies, a 6 percentage point increase from a December survey.

Pandu Riono, an epidemiologist at the University of Indonesia, which conducted the survey with the health ministry, on Monday told Reuters the antibody levels in the latest survey were higher due to a wider booster shot roll-out, as recipients had stronger protection.

A healthcare worker prepares a dose of China’s Sinovac Biotech vaccine for Covid-19 on the outskirts of Jakarta, Indonesia. A study shows 99 per cent on Indonesia’s most populous island have Covid-antibodies. Photo: Reuters

Indonesia’s daily case numbers have decreased significantly since a spike in February driven by the Omicron variant. About 60 per cent of its 270 million people have been vaccinated against Covid.