Malaysians working in Singapore held joyful reunions with their loved ones after returning to their homeland yesterday following the partial reopening of a land border that has been shuttered for nearly two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Buses drove fully vaccinated passengers across the Johor-Singapore Causeway that connects Singapore with the Malaysian peninsula, with strict measures in place, including COVID-19 tests before deaprture and upon arrival.
Malaysian Minister of Health Khairy Jamaluddin wrote on Twitter that a COVID-19 case was detected during the screening in southern Johor state, but did not elaborate.
Photo: AP
“As we safely reopen our borders, there will be positive cases at points of entry. Risk assessment, isolation and monitoring close contacts will become the norm,” he said.
Under the first phase, only 1,440 travelers who must be citizens, permanent residents or long-term pass holders are allowed from each side per day.
The causeway was one of the world’s busiest land borders before the pandemic struck.
Air travel also reopened with fewer restrictions, allowing anyone who is fully vaccinated to travel quarantine-free between the two countries.
“It’s already since past one year plus, I never meet her and when I see her today, I’m happy, I’m very happy,” retiree Siva Ganesan said after greeting his wife, Uma Devi Balakrishnan, at the bus terminal in Johor.
His wife works as a cleaner in Singapore and was stranded when borders were shut.
A Malaysian man kissed and hugged his baby whom he met for the first time, while another woman sank tearfully into her father’s arms. More than 100,000 Malaysians were believed stuck in the Singapore after the border closed in March last year.
“It’s surreal, doesn’t feel real at all, because it’s been a while not coming home,” Malaysian Cheong Weng-yin said. “I have been feeling very nervous until I set foot here.”
Across the border, Chua Pei-sze and her two daughters, ages 10 and seven, were first in line for the first bus heading to Malaysia.
“Finally we can get to bring my daughters to see their grandmother in person ... video calls just aren’t enough,” said the 43-year-old, who works in the shipping industry.
Kavin Raj, 24, said he was planning to surprise his family, because they were not aware that he had managed to get a ticket on the first bus.
“First thing, I would say, I will have a very good meal in Malaysia,” he said.
More than 350,000 people crossed the causeway daily before it was shut, mostly Malaysians working in Singapore due to a favorable exchange rate.
The two countries said the limits on land border crossings would be progressively relaxed to include general travelers and modes of transportation other than buses. A second land link is also expected to be restored soon.
Singapore has vaccinated 85 percent of its population, and Malaysia nearly 80 percent.
BRUSHED OFF: An ambassador to Australia previously said that Beijing does not see a reason to apologize for its naval exercises and military maneuvers in international areas China set off alarm bells in New Zealand when it dispatched powerful warships on unprecedented missions in the South Pacific without explanation, military documents showed. Beijing has spent years expanding its reach in the southern Pacific Ocean, courting island nations with new hospitals, freshly paved roads and generous offers of climate aid. However, these diplomatic efforts have increasingly been accompanied by more overt displays of military power. Three Chinese warships sailed the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand in February, the first time such a task group had been sighted in those waters. “We have never seen vessels with this capability
A Japanese city would urge all smartphone users to limit screen time to two hours a day outside work or school under a proposed ordinance that includes no penalties. The limit — which would be recommended for all residents in Toyoake City — would not be binding and there would be no penalties incurred for higher usage, the draft ordinance showed. The proposal aims “to prevent excessive use of devices causing physical and mental health issues... including sleep problems,” Mayor Masafumi Koki said yesterday. The draft urges elementary-school students to avoid smartphones after 9pm, and junior-high students and older are advised not
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has fired his national police chief, who gained attention for leading the separate arrests of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte on orders of the International Criminal Court and televangelist Apollo Carreon Quiboloy, who is on the FBI’s most-wanted list for alleged child sex trafficking. Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin did not cite a reason for the removal of General Nicolas Torre as head of the 232,000-member national police force, a position he was appointed to by Marcos in May and which he would have held until 2027. He was replaced by another senior police general, Jose
POWER CONFLICT: The US president threatened to deploy National Guards in Baltimore. US media reports said he is also planning to station troops in Chicago US President Donald Trump on Sunday threatened to deploy National Guard troops to yet another Democratic stronghold, the Maryland city of Baltimore, as he seeks to expand his crackdown on crime and immigration. The Republican’s latest online rant about an “out of control, crime-ridden” city comes as Democratic state leaders — including Maryland Governor Wes Moore — line up to berate Trump on a high-profile political stage. Trump this month deployed the National Guard to the streets of Washington, in a widely criticized show of force the president said amounts to a federal takeover of US capital policing. The Guard began carrying
RSS