Singapore wants to keep borders open even if new Covid variant emerges: ‘We’ve learned to adapt’
- Transport Minister S. Iswaran said the city state had ‘learned to adapt’ and now has ‘more tools in the toolkit’ to deal with any new variants of Covid-19
- The government expects passenger traffic at Changi Airport to reach 50 per cent of pre-pandemic levels by later this year
The island country has learned from its past experiences of dealing with coronavirus variants, Iswaran said on Wednesday in an interview. When Omicron hit, Singapore did not backtrack on its reopening plans but rather decided to wait and see how things panned out, he said, noting that response was different versus the Delta outbreak.
“We’ve all learned to adapt,” Iswaran said on the sidelines of the Changi Aviation Summit. “We have more tools in the toolkit. It’s not as if you always only have a hammer. Now I’ve got you know, a wrench and a screwdriver and all kinds of other things as well. It really comes down to an assessment of the situation and the risk and then to take a calibrated response.”
Singapore was among the first countries in Asia to reopen its borders, initially allowing entry to fully vaccinated people from selected countries late last year without quarantine in a bid to help revive the country’s aviation and tourism sectors. Since then, other restrictions have been progressively removed and Changi Airport is now working to keep up with demand.
However while travel is returning, optimism is being tempered by some challenges as companies scale up operations, Iswaran said. The government is helping airlines, airport ground handlers and other firms to hire more people to meet demand.
“This is a challenge of transition,” Iswaran said. “We’re working very hard at the system level and with aviation stakeholders individually and collectively, really pulling together. Our overriding objective is to make sure Changi is well prepared for this transition.”