Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19) Updates
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I think the benefit of joining a TA package tour is that you have fewer attraction e-tix/paper tix/hotel booking slips/train tix/F&B reservations to carry with you
However, please note all the personal e-health declarations, statement of honor, booking of private clinic pre-dep tests & on-arrival PCR tests in SIN, generation of QR codes & downloading of foreign contact-tracing apps, have to be handled by you yourself, via your own HP SMS and personal email. The Tour Guide/Manager does not do all these indiv documentation/admin work for guests. You check in yourself at the airport counter with all the digital copies stored in your own device.
I did call up some TAs to enquire in Oct. The only advantage is TA will book your 48-hr PDT at the last destination for the entire group. If you do F&E, you must make your own laboratory booking or hunt for the nearest pharmacy to get your PDT ART done <48hr before flying home to SIN. The TA may however guide Chinese-speaking guests and seniors if they do not know how to prepare the docs or fill in some forms.
At the end of the day, I think TAs also have to rely on embassies, ICA & airlines to advise them of the latest requirements, so no TA is more informed than other FITs; in a nutshell, everyone’s feeling the same stones as he crosses the river.
I suppose TAs are like overseas education/emigration agents who will prepare the To-Do checklists for customers for a fee. They will remind you that you need to complete some legal forms and do submission on your behalf, but the health screening etc still gotta be done by yourself. -
ngl2010\" post_id=\"2050822\" time=\"1638851042\" user_id=\"40978:
Totally agree! I think I'm not going to try travelling overseas anytime soon. Let others do it and hopefully get the kinks worked out first. I'm going on a staycation after Christmas, and that will have to do for now.
I am getting headache just reading about it. I guess I will join tour group if I want to travel overseas so there will be somebody who will prepare our documents. :sad: -
I’ve never liked travelling (or staycations) even before the pandemic cos don’t like to deal with all the packing & unpacking + mountains of laundry after.
Perfectly happy staying at home & enjoying our space mask-less. DS had a few playdates at friends’ house (no one polices masks inside private dwellings) and at various local attractions (no need stick to groups of 5).
My mum has finally gotten her 1st dose last week. Once she’s fully vaccinated, at least we don’t have to be so 提心吊胆 around her any more. -
Zappy\" post_id=\"2050805\" time=\"1638833460\" user_id=\"134817:
:celebrate:
Had similar experiences as you - we just came back from the US.
- .oa file... no idea what it is and nobody asked for it, whether locally or overseas
- did pre-departure tests overseas & even printed out the results at the hotel and nobody even checked anything even when we returned to Changi (maybe they just depended on your declaration)
- when asked overseas, we just used the hardcopy notarised printed pdfs; didnt bother with trying to explain TT app or whatever (anyway it was usually just a cursory check that you are vaccinated)
- one more irritant: those 2 post-trip ART tests - they only allow 5 slots in chronological order at each QTC
- why can't they just let people choose an appropriate timing that suits them
- imagine if I wanted to book a 4.30pm slot, I will need to wait for people to take up all the slots from 9am (at 15min intervals) before I can book the slot I wanted
- then when we went to the QTC yesterday for the 1st test... we realized that anyone can walk in anytime without booking even ... DUH!
You still went to the hotel biz ctr to print out? I didn't even bother! I merely downloaded the PDT report (sent to me via SMS & email by the lab) and saved to my Dropbox.
And FYI, my PDT lab report was in French, though ICA says it must be in English or Eng+foreign lang. But the SIA check-in counter staff just took a glance at my French app with the NEGATIF QR code (posted above) and let us pass.
We got my EUDCC prior to our departure, so I didn't really need to pull out my SG notarised vac cert at F&Bs, museums, etc. EU countries were quite diligent in checking vac certs. One German restaurant even checked my Vaccine Brand reflected on my EUDCC and muttered, ''ah...Pfizer. Ok OK''.*
About 9 out of 10 places would ask to see the EUDCC. Our hotel restaurant also asked to see our vac cert every morning when we went down to take our breakfast. Some F&Bs just checked 1 family member's cert and waved to let the rest enter.
The Europeans were very hospitable towards us Asians as they haven't seen us in quite a while. This is the BEST window to travel to any country in the world, because millions of PRCs, HK, TW cannot get out of China until end-2022 due to their uncompromising 14-21 day quarantine. The queues at Eiffel, Louvre, boutiques were so short without them! It felt like I was teleported to the 1990s when there were no PRC tourists in EU. I got to stand in front of Mona Lisa within 10min.
Fortunately, I narrowly escaped the Day 3 & 7 ART as I returned b4 the new rule kicked in.
I did my on-arrival PCR test at Changi at 7+am, Got my NEGATIVE results via email at 1.30pm. My travel companions got theirs at 3+pm...
*It should be noted that not all EU/Schengen countries recognise Sinovac/Sinopharm (e.g. Germany and France), so if you have a travel companion who took such Chinese vaccine, they might not be able to cross-border with you, unless they take on-arrival ART at a local pharmacy. -
zac's mum\" post_id=\"2050832\" time=\"1638857727\" user_id=\"53606:[quote=\"zac's mum\" post_id=2050832 time=1638857727 user_id=53606]
Your son is old enough to deal with his own packing and unpacking now! When they are small, it can be a pain. I've had to pack and unpack several times a year most of my kids' growing up years, and we moved house every couple of years too. Not something I particularly enjoyed, though I don't regret those years - there was a lot of good in them too. We generally do laundry while travelling (so we can travel light), which means the mountain on return is more a hill than a mountain.
I’ve never liked travelling (or staycations) even before the pandemic cos don’t like to deal with all the packing & unpacking + mountains of laundry after.
Perfectly happy staying at home & enjoying our space mask-less. DS had a few playdates at friends’ house (no one polices masks inside private dwellings) and at various local attractions (no need stick to groups of 5).
My mum has finally gotten her 1st dose last week. Once she’s fully vaccinated, at least we don’t have to be so 提心吊胆 around her any more.[/quote]
I'm looking forward to travelling again, just my husband and me, but only when the risk of things changing on us midway is lower. I don't like surprises. -
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emoh\" post_id=\"2051076\" time=\"1638975079\" user_id=\"10618:
Think now the world can heave a sigh of relief & look fwd to life getting back to normal once the new vaccine tops up fr our expiring 1st jab.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/pfizer-biontech-vaccine-3-doses-omicron-covid19-2366901 -
Estéema\" post_id=\"2051079\" time=\"1638978346\" user_id=\"66413:
We can also start to think about what we have learnt from this Pandemic.
Think now the world can heave a sigh of relief & look fwd to life getting back to normal once the new vaccine tops up fr our expiring 1st jab. -
Anyone read anything about having Sinovac 3 times then mrna the 4th time?
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MrsKiasu\" post_id=\"2051185\" time=\"1639062824\" user_id=\"43981:
No, I asked a clinic giving Sinovac before and they say cannot because they are vaccination with different concepts and techniques.
Anyone read anything about having Sinovac 3 times then mrna the 4th time?
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