Malaysia to suspend ticket sales for vaccinated travel lane to Singapore

[KUALA LUMPUR] Malaysia will freeze the sale of plane and bus tickets to Singapore under its sole vaccinated travel lane from Thursday through Jan 20, according to Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin.

This was after taking into account the latest development in Singapore, Khairy said in a statement ON Wednesday. Singapore earlier said it would halt ticket sales to all 24 nations with which it has agreements for quarantine-free travel.

Ticket sales will resume on Jan 21 after a risk assessment of the Covid situation in both countries, said Khairy. Like Singapore, Malaysia will reduce the quota for ticket sales, he added.

Malaysia has detected 13 cases of the Omicron variant, all of which are imported, the Health Ministry said on Saturday. The government is also verifying another possible 13 imported cases of the Covid variant.

The country's attempts at managing the pandemic have hit speed bumps after parts of peninsular Malaysia experienced flooding following torrential rain that began Friday. A total 267 positive cases were detected among the 71,320 flood victims seeking shelter at evacuation centers, the health ministry said Tuesday.

BLOOMBERG