Last-minute checks come after the Chinese embassy announced last Friday that from tomorrow, all travelers from Singapore to China will have to pass a Covid-19 check within five days of their flight to the country, to make sure they are loose with coronavirus.
Passengers booked on flight TR100 to Guangzhou on Sunday morning were alerted to the new requirement in an urgent email sent via Scoot on Tuesday afternoon.
The email added that “the test arrangements have been made through the relevant government and must be strictly enforced.”
Passengers on the flight were ordered to take the at the regional inspection center at the former Shuqun High School in Jurong East between 9am and 10:30am yesterday.
More than two hundred people, some with their families, were downtown when the Straits Times visited him yesterday.
Passengers had to provide their airline tickets, on flights operated through Scoot and China Southern Airlines to Chinese cities, to the workers’ security corps before they could be assessed.
A passenger seeking to be known only as Mr. Chen told the Straits Times that he would return to Guangzhou on flight TR100.
Chen, who at the control center with his wife, wondered if the flight would take up position on Sunday.
“It was a disaster from the beginning. We think we can still see our families, but our flights continued to change.
“Now, with those tests, I don’t know if there will be any more delays,” said the engineer, who is over 40 years old.
Other passengers were not satisfied with the control imposed on them.
Lin Yuling, an accountant working in Singapore, said: “Last night we were informed that this would happen.
“There are a lot more people here than expected and we don’t know how our plans will be affected now.”
The 36-year-old woman, who was making plans to travel to Tianjin with her husband on Sunday, added that she was told that passengers had to pay for the test, which costs $186.
According to Scoot’s email, passengers must pay the check before they can be informed of the effects.
Scoot also stated that since verification effects will require a 48-hour delay, passengers must comply with the verification schedule to get the effects on time for Sunday’s flight.
Not everyone can just pay. An employee of the structure who sought to be known only as Mr. Wang said he would ask his employer for help because he may not undergo the test.
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