A roadmap to resilience - and feeding the starved travel bug

THE roadmap towards a "Covid-resilient" Singapore, sketched out in Parliament on Monday, provided reassurance tempered with caution: from a reiteration of the new focus on health outcomes rather than daily case numbers, to warnings that future variants might necessitate booster shots and even tightened measures.

Many may have zeroed in, however, on one specific point mentioned by Finance Minister Lawrence Wong: the prospect of freer travel for vaccinated persons in the not-too-distant future.

By early September, Singapore hopes to have vaccinated about four-fifths of its population, allowing it to ease domestic restrictions further, he said. The country will also begin to reopen its borders, starting with travel corridors with countries or regions that have managed Covid-19 well and have infections under control. Fully vaccinated persons will thus be able to travel without having to serve a full 14-day stay home notice (SHN) upon returning. Instead, depending on the risk level of the country they have visited, they may face a rigorous testing regime or serve a seven-day SHN at home, rather than in a hotel. As Mr Wong noted, this means vaccinated persons will be able to travel more freely.

As has been oft repeated, international travel is crucial for a economy such as Singapore's. The island's connectivity is one of the reasons that many multinationals have chosen to site their regional or global headquarters here. Facilitating business travel is an important move to help Singapore maintain its hub status, particularly as other advanced economies seek to reconnect to the world. There is also a need to revive and sustain the country's aviation and tourism-related industries, which cannot be kept on life support indefinitely.

But tellingly, the prospect of freer travel was not framed in terms of economic gains alone; nor will the potential travel corridors be reserved for business and official travellers, as is the case with the existing green lanes.

As the multi-ministry taskforce on Covid-19 recognises, beyond economic imperatives, there are social and psychological desires that overseas travel can help to meet. This includes helping families to reunite - but also simply restoring the possibility of leisure travel.

Compared to the life-and-death matters of public health or worries over unemployment and lost income, the dearth of overseas holidays may seem like a frivolous concern amid the pandemic, the loss of a luxury that not everyone could afford in the first place. Yet this psychological need should not simply be dismissed out of hand.

Around the world, Covid-necessitated lockdowns have been shown to have taken a toll on mental health. On this front, Singapore has largely fared better than many other countries and cities, which have gone in and out of strict lockdowns.

Yet being confined to this tiny island for the better part of two years - after having been used to an admittedly privileged lifestyle of easy travel - has been its own form of lockdown. In larger countries that have kept borders shut, people may still have been able to travel to the countryside or other towns. In Singapore, this pent-up demand has had nowhere to go. Many are hoping that, after September, this can finally change. READ MORE:

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