Singapore cuts stay-home period for visitors to 14 days

The decision, which took effect on Thursday, "is based on updated evidence gathered over the past month," The Straits Times newspaper reported citing a source from the Ministry of Health.

Since the 21-day stay-home notice period was implemented over fears of new virus strains on May 8 the country had logged 270 imported cases as of Tuesday, the ministry said.

"All of them had incubation periods well within 14 days.

"We have since reviewed the international evidence and local case data and found no evidence - from both overseas and local data - that these variants come with longer incubation periods."

The stay-home notice requires travelers to remain in their place of residence or dedicated facility for the stipulated period.

They are required to test themselves regularly using self-administered antigen rapid test kits during the stay-home period in addition to polymerase chain reaction tests.

Singapore had over 62,000 cases and 35 deaths as of Thursday.

At a meeting in Hanoi on Monday Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son and his Singaporean counterpart, Vivian Balakrishnan, agreed to speed up the establishment of a working group for mutual vaccine certificate recognition so that their two countries could soon resume air travel.

Around 12,000 Vietnamese citizens live in Singapore.

Vietnam closed its borders and canceled all international flights in March last year, and allows in only certain categories of visitors with Covid-19 quarantine requirements. It recently increased the centralized quarantine period to 21 days following a more widespread outbreak triggered by new strains of the coronavirus.