SINGAPORE : From next Monday (May 23), Singapore and the African Union (AU) will begin recognising each other's digital Covid-19 vaccination certificates, making travel to the 55 member states-bloc easier.

With the move, those fully vaccinated in Singapore need only upload their digital vaccination certificates issued by the Ministry of Health to have their status verified on the AU's Trusted Travel (TT) and Trusted Vaccines (TV) platforms, allowing quarantine-free travel.

Digital checks of travellers' vaccination status are seen as key to unlocking the full potential of post-pandemic air travel, with manual checks in the last two years increasingly impossible as the number of travellers return to pre-pandemic heights.

Singapore's Covid-19 certificate is already recognised as the equivalent to the European Union's digital certificate.

Jurisdictions, such as Taiwan, have also formed similar arrangements with Singapore.

Currently, 21 major African destinations including Ethiopia, Nigeria, Ghana, Namibia, Kenya and Rwanda are either already fully using TT and TV, or are in the final stages of onboarding to one of the platforms.

There are plans to get all African countries on the platform, which was started in the last quarter of 2020, in the next few months.

During the Omicron outbreak late last year and early this year, Singapore had banned travellers from several African countries, including South Africa, Botswana and Mozambique, from entering or transiting through its borders.

This has since been lifted.

  - ANN