Malaysia-Singapore VTL temporarily suspended from Thursday - Khairy

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 22 -- The sale of bus and flight tickets under the Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) between Malaysia and Singapore will be temporarily suspended from tomorrow until Jan 20 2022 said Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin.

The decision, he said took into consideration a report of Singapore Health Ministry on Dec 20 after a local COVID-19 cluster involving three positive cases was detected.   

“Further test findings carried out found two of the cases showed the possibility of the Omicron variant while the result of other case is still pending. The three cases do not have any history of oversea travel,” he said in a statement here today.

He said for travellers who have purchased VTL tickets via land and air as well as meeting the stipulated conditions can travel under the initiative.

Commenting further, he said the VTL initiative would be reopened on Jan 21 2022 after a risk assessment based on the current COVID-19 situation in both countries.

"However, the ticket quota sold would be reduced from the existing quota,” he said while adding that further information on the temporarily travel suspension on bus and air tickets under the initiative can be referred to the Malaysian Transport Ministry for air VTL and the Ministry of International Trade and Industry for land VTL.

In this regard, Khairy called on all travellers to be responsible and always comply with the standard operating procedure (SOP) stipulated by taking COVID-19 self-test randomly.

On Nov 29, Malaysia and Singapore agreed to launch the VTL initiative by air and land between the two countries for travellers who have completed two doses of COVID-19 vaccination.

Via the facility, travellers need not under compulsory quarantine upon arrival at the destination, but they are required to undergo the need of carrying out COVID-19 detection test before departure and upon arrival.  

-- BERNAMA