Starting Oct. 19, all travelers from the Philippines are required to present negative swab tests before they are allowed to enter Singapore, the Filipino consulate general in the Lion City announced today.
Adrian Candolada said that the Singapore government’s decision was based on the fact that many imported COVID-19 cases in the country came from the Philippines, as well as from India and Indonesia. Indians and Indonesian travelers are also required to present negative PCR-tests before arriving in Singapore.
Read: All China-bound travelers from PH required to present negative coronavirus tests
“Starting Oct. 19, the Singapore government announced last night that there is an additional requirement for all travelers coming from the Philippines. There should be a pre-departure negative test taken within 72 hours which must be shown [before departure] before one’s [entry] is approved in Singapore,” Cadolada said in English and Filipino in an interview with ABS-CBN’s Teleradyo.
He added that from Oct. 9 to 11, out of the 27 COVID-19 cases detected in Singapore, 11 were Filipinos. A few were short-term visitors, but many of them were overseas Filipino workers who vacationed in the Philippines.
The Singaporean government’s announcement comes two months after China required all travelers from the Philippines to present negative RT-PCR tests, the gold standard in coronavirus testing.
The Philippines has the 18th highest number of COVID-19 cases in the world, with 342,816 cases recorded as of yesterday. The number includes 293,152 recoveries and 6,332 deaths.
