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After remaining closed for 745 days, the land borders between Singapore and Malaysia were finally reopened on April 1, 2022 -- to scenes of jubilation with loud cheering and honking to boot.
The Singapore media went down to the ground to report on the happenings from the Singapore side of the Causeway, while the Malaysians have done the same -- with people on the ground providing live updates.
A short 90-second snippet spliced together showed the scenes of Malaysians running and riding across the Causeway to get home or enter Singapore
Motorcyclists cheered
Man running shouts "Malaysia boleh!"
Malaysians walking the entire distance of the Causeway
Finally reaching customs
Background
The borders between Singapore and Malaysia have been closed since March 17, 2020.
On the eve of the reopening, more than 200 people, mainly Malaysian, were waiting at Woodlands, according to The Straits Times.
At Tuas, some 500 motorcyclists waited for the borders to allow entry of vehicles.
Fully vaccinated travellers for both countries are now able to cross land borders by all modes of transport without having to take any Covid-19 test or serve quarantine.
They will no longer be required to take designated VTL buses.
There is also no longer any cap on the number of daily overland travellers, previously restricted to 6,800 daily via the VTL.
The first person to emerge into Singapore from the Woodlands Checkpoint building did so at about 12.40am, ST reported.
He walked for about 20 minutes with about 100 people from Malaysia.
A Land Transport Authority (LTA) spokesman said it had received around 20,000 Vehicle Entry Permit (VEP) applications into Singapore as at 6pm on March 31.
Congestion during peak times is anticipated and travellers are advised to check traffic alerts before proceeding to checkpoints.
Before the pandemic, Malaysian tourists were the seventh-biggest spenders in Singapore.
Singaporeans spent the most as tourists in Malaysia at about S$6.59 billion in 2019.
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