JOHOR BARU: As the Covid-19 situation in both Malaysia and Singapore continues to improve, people can look forward to the resumption of more activities in the future, says Singapore Health Minister Ong Ye Kung(pic).

       He said this must also include the restoration of the air and land connections between both countries.

       “Our economies and societies are so closely intertwined. The people-to-people connections between Malaysia and Singapore have been incredibly numerous and close; almost every family in Singapore will have relatives living in Malaysia,” said Ong.

       “The Singapore-Kuala Lumpur aviation sector is the busiest in the world, as the Woodlands Causeway is for land border crossings,” he added during his keynote address at the National Institutes of Health Malaysia on Thursday (March 24).

       Ong said he had a good discussion with his Malaysian counterpart Khairy Jamaluddin on working towards the full resumption of air and land travel between both countries for vaccinated persons.

       He said the agencies of both sides will work out the operational details, and they look forward to realising this soon.

       Ong noted that Covid-19 has taken the world by storm, but for Malaysia and Singapore, things are at present looking up.

       The wave has peaked and is subsiding quickly in Singapore, while there are also good indications that the country is close to arriving at the leeward side of the transmission wave, he said.

       In his speech, Ong also shared about Singapore’s findings and lessons learnt from handling the pandemic in two years.

       He noted at the government level, there is a careful need to weigh the easing of the measures against the risk of putting hospitals and healthcare workers under additional pressure.

       “And between neighbouring countries, such as Malaysia and Singapore, we have been working hand in hand throughout the crisis,” said Ong.

       He added that when the land border traffic was disrupted due to the Covid-19 virus, Singapore's authorities sprang into action by housing the tens of thousands of Johoreans working in Singapore, since they could no longer commute on a daily basis across the causeways.

       “We ensured that essential supplies and critical components continued to flow both ways.

       “Minister Khairy and I also remain constantly in touch, to update each other on the situation in our countries and our respective responses and I have learnt much from my exchanges with him,” he said, adding that Malaysia has done very well with its vaccination rollout and preparing the country for the endemic phase.