Singaporeans in Thailand relish chance to visit home

But experts don’t expect travel to hit pre-virus levels despite VTL

- Tan Tam Mei

Singaporeans living in Bangkok have welcomed the launch of the Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) with Thailand.

“I was of course super excited, my boyfriend had to tell me to calm down after hearing the news,” said international school teacher Agnes Lin, 32. She used to return home every alternate weekend, but has not seen her family in nearly two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

From Dec 14, travellers from Thailand will not need to serve a seven-day stay-home notice in Singapore. Instead they will join visitors from several other countries under the VTL scheme who will need only to show negative results from two Covid-19 tests to be allowed to enter Singapore.

“Undergoing quarantine was a big factor in why I did not want to return earlier, but now that it is out of the way, it will be easier to go home,” said Ms Lin.