US reclassifies S'pore Covid-19 travel alert from 'unknown' to 2nd-highest risk level

The move follows MOH's engagement with the U.S. CDC.

Matthias Ang | January 11, 2022, 12:25 PM

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The U.S. has reclassified its travel advisory alert for Singapore once again, from "unknown" to "high", the second-highest risk level.

The move was made on Jan. 10 by the Centers for Disease Control and Protection (CDC) and suggested that travellers should make sure they are fully vaccinated before going to Singapore, while unvaccinated travellers should avoid nonessential travel.

How did Singapore get classified to "high"?

Singapore was moved from "very high" to "unknown" by the CDC on Jan. 4.

Other countries in this category include Yemen, North Korea, Syria and Afghanistan.

According to Bloomberg, the CDC said the issue was "a lack of testing findings" from the statistics it had obtained from aggregator site Our World in Data.

MOH says it will share statistics

In response, health minister Ong Ye Kung shared during a press conference on Jan. 5 that MOH was currently engaging the U.S. embassy and would provide necessary Covid-19 data to the U.S. CDC.

"To be clear: we know our situation very well," he added.

Ong shared that the positive rates for over 150,000 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests administered every week is just under two per cent.

Additionally, only a "very small handful" of wastewater testing stations across the island are registering the presence of Covid-19 viral fragments.

"So we are sure that the incidence of Covid-19 in our community is currently low and stable," said Ong.

Following the announcement, the CDC said that it was working with MOH about Singapore's Covid-19 testing data and that it would update its Travel Health Notice accordingly, which it did.

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Top photo by Zhangxin Zheng