SINGAPORE — From Monday (March 16), all travellers entering Singapore with recent travel history to Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) countries, Japan, Switzerland or the United Kingdom in the last fortnight will be issued a 14-day stay-home notice.

Singaporeans are also advised to defer all non-essential travel abroad with immediate effect, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said in a statement on Sunday.

The new measures are aimed at reducing the risk of Covid-19 being imported into Singapore, given how the number of infections and deaths globally is increasing rapidly.

The new rules do not apply to Singaporeans and Malaysians using the Republic's sea and land crossings with Malaysia, Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing said in a Facebook post.

The restrictions will also not have an impact on the supply of food and other essentials between Singapore and Malaysia as drivers of goods vehicles will be able to enter as per normal, he added.

National Development Minister Lawrence Wong said at a press briefing on Sunday that some “special considerations” have to be put in place for Malaysia given the proximity and interdependency between the two countries.

“We do need precautions to be taken at these checkpoints, but it is going to be more complex given the high volume of people moving in and out of these checkpoints. On our land crossing alone, 300,000 people move across the checkpoints every day,” said Mr Wong, who co-chairs a multi-ministry taskforce to tackle the virus.

The stay-home notice will be issued from 11.59pm on Monday to all travellers, including Singapore residents, long-term-pass holders as well as short-term visitors who have been to the listed countries.

Similar measures have already been rolled out for residents and long-term-pass holders returning from China, Iran, Italy, France, Germany, South Korea and Spain, while short-term visitors from these places are barred from entering or transiting through Singapore.

As for the United States, which has seen about 3,000 infections and more than 50 deaths, Mr Wong said that the authorities are watching developments there closely, but a key concern is with countries that have already “given up on containment” and are simply delaying the spread, such as Britain.

“The UK has been most public in acknowledging that there is no point containing and that they are simply now at a phase of trying to delay the spread,” Mr Wong said.

“They are quite prepared, as you heard some of these countries say, for the virus to spread to a large proportion of their populations… Then the number of cases in the next peak that comes may now be higher than what we had faced in the initial wave,” he added.

“Countries that are not even thinking about containing the virus may be well facing a much higher number of cases outside Singapore (and) exposure to more cases,” Mr Wong said. 

“That is why we are quite concerned that Singapore will, indeed, be exposed to a new wave of infection that is potentially larger than what we had seen… If that is the case, we do need more stringent border control measures.”

Affected travellers will have to provide proof of the place where they will serve the stay-home notice, such as the hotel they will be residing at. They may also be swabbed for Covid-19 testing, even if they do not have symptoms.

Additionally, from 11.59pm on March 16, all short-term visitors who are nationals of any Asean country will have to submit health information to the Singapore overseas mission in their country before they travel to Singapore. The submission will have to be approved by MOH before they travel to Singapore and will be verified by Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officials at Singapore checkpoints.

Those who arrive in Singapore without the necessary approval will be denied entry.

All travellers entering Singapore with fever or other symptoms of respiratory illness are required to undergo a Covid-19 swab test at the checkpoints, regardless of travel history. They will also be issued a 14-day stay-home notice, which they have to serve in full even if the swab test is negative. Those who meet the clinical suspect case definition will be taken to hospital for follow-up.

The advisory for Singaporeans to defer all non-essential overseas travel will apply for 30 days and will be reviewed thereafter.

Similarly, the border control measures will be reviewed in 30 days and may be extended to more countries, depending on the global and local situation, MOH said.