Singapore plans to expand quarantine-free travel with S. Korea, U.S

SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Singapore plans to widen its quarantine-free travel programme to include fully vaccinated individuals from South Korea and the United States as the financial hub moves cautiously to reopen its borders.

Fully vaccinated travelers can travel between the city-state's Changi airport and South Korea's Incheon airport, taking COVID-19 Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests instead of observing quarantine from Nov. 15, the transport ministry said in a statement on Friday.

Singapore, a travel and tourism hub, began a similar programme for visitors from Germany and Brunei last month, and is working to include the United States by year-end.

"We have had successful pilots of Vaccinated Travel Lanes (VTL) with Germany and Brunei," Trade Minister Gan Kim Yong said on Thursday during a visit to Washington, D.C.

"We are now working on a VTL with the U.S. as soon as possible, and certainly before the end of the year."

Vaccinated visitors using these lanes can bypass the isolation requirements if their polymerase chain reaction tests prove negative.

(Reporting by Aradhana Aravindan and Chen Lin in Singapore; Editing by Kim Coghill and Clarence Fernandez)