VTL travel with unvaccinated children – beware of extra tests and quarantine

In mid-October the Singapore Government announced welcome news for parents, confirming that unvaccinated children aged 12 or under would be eligible to take flight on the newly expanded Vaccinated Travel Lanes (VTL) to a range of countries, for a much needed overseas family holiday.

The new policy means that any child aged 12 or below in the current calendar year, which is those born on or after 1st January 2009 for 2021 arrivals in Singapore and those born on or after 1st January 2010 for 2022 arrivals in Singapore, are exempt from the requirement to be fully vaccinated, provided they are travelling with fully vaccinated adults.

Vaccination in Singapore

In Singapore, your child must have crossed their 12th birthday to book their first vaccination dose appointment.

That means there will be a minimum five-week period between their 12th birthday and achieving fully vaccinated status in the eyes of Singapore and most countries.

The Singapore Government therefore decided to be quite helpful when opening the VTL scheme to unvaccinated children, by allowing unvaccinated 12 year olds (who can actually be vaccinated) as well as unvaccinated 11 year olds and younger (who can’t) to travel quarantine-free with their parents.

Effectively, the government is giving parents a year to get their 12 year olds jabbed before saying – ok now they are 13 they will have to be fully vaccinated to travel quarantine-free.

If you child was born on 2nd January 2010, for example, and will therefore hit their 12th birthday on 1st January 2022, but you have a VTL trip planned for 5th-15th January 2022, it would simply be impossible for you to travel with them, without this dispensation.

While that’s very kind of Singapore, many VTL countries don’t see it that way, and have additional requirements for unvaccinated 12 year olds, including pre-departure testing for four countries that don’t require it for fully vaccinated travellers or for under-12s.

In three countries, some form of quarantine or self-isolation is required on arrival.

Fully vaccinated definition

Here’s how the VTL countries consider arriving passengers to be “fully vaccinated”, based on the two-dose Pfizer and Moderna vaccines being administered in Singapore:

• Australia and France: 7 days after the second dose
• Switzerland: Immediately after the second dose
• Singapore and all other VTL countries: 14 days after the second dose

For example, if you just got your second dose 8 days ago in Singapore, you can travel to France today under the fully vaccinated rules (no PDT), spend a week there, then fly back to Singapore on the VTL. France deems you fully vaccinated, and by the time you fly home (+15 days from second dose), so does Singapore.

What’s the impact?

If you’re travelling on the VTL with unvaccinated children aged 12 or below, there are some testing requirements and other restrictions, sometimes including a quarantine period, you should know about for trips to:

• Australia
• Canada
• France
• Germany
• Italy
• Netherlands
• Spain
• USA

Here’s our summary of what you need to be aware of.

Countries with no PDT for most VTL travellers

Here’s a breakdown of the additional pre-departure tests (PDT) some unvaccinated children will require before travelling to a VTL country that currently requires no PDT for fully vaccinated travellers.

Age	🇳🇱 Netherlands 🇪🇸 Spain 🇫🇷 France			🇩🇪 Germany
0 – 11	No PDT			No PDT 5 days quarantine
12 Unvaxxed	PDT (PCR or ART)			PDT (PCR or ART) 5 days quarantine
12+ Vaxxed	No PDT

Be careful with these ones – just because you don’t need a PDT doesn’t mean your unvaccinated child won’t!

Germany

Germany recently added Singapore to its list of “high-risk” countries, which means those with a 10-day travel history including Singapore now need to complete a digital registration prior to travelling there, and must be fully vaccinated to avoid arrival quarantine.

Unvaccinated children will have to undergo a 5 day self-isolation on arrival. This includes unvaccinated 12 year olds, who will also require a pre-departure PCR or ART test in the form of:

• A PCR test conducted no more than 72 hours prior to arrival; or
• An ART test conducted no more than 48 hours prior to arrival.

Note that it is your arrival time in Germany that is counted for the test validity, not your flight’s departure time.

For example if you’re planning to get a PCR test for your unvaccinated 12 year old and you’re flying to Frankfurt on SQ26, which lands at 6.45am on Thursday, the test must be conduced no earlier than 6.45am Germany time on Monday, which is 1.45pm on Monday in Singapore.

See here for details.

France, Spain and the Netherlands

Unvaccinated 12 year olds travelling to France, Spain or the Netherlands will require a pre-departure PCR or ART test. This needs to be in the form of:

🇫🇷  France	A PCR  test conducted no more than 72 hours prior to departure. An ART test conducted no more than 48 hours prior to departure.[1]
🇪🇸  Spain	A PCR test conducted no more than 72 hours prior to arrival; or An ART test conducted no more than 48 hours prior to arrival.[2]
🇳🇱  Netherlands	A PCR test conducted no more than 48 hours prior to departure; or An ART test conducted no more than 24 hours prior to departure.[3]

Again, do note that it’s your arrival time in Spain that is counted for the test validity, not your flight’s departure time like in France and the Netherlands.

Countries already requiring PDT for VTL travellers

Four VTL countries already require a pre-departure test even for fully vaccinated adults. Here’s how their rules then apply when you’re also travelling with unvaccinated children.

Age	🇮🇹 Italy	🇨🇦 Canada	🇺🇸 USA	🇦🇺 Australia
0 – 1	No PDT	No PDT	No PDT	No PDT
2 – 4			PDT (PCR or ART)
5		PDT (PCR) + Post-arrival testing	PDT (PCR or ART)	PDT (PCR)
6 – 11	PDT (PCR or ART)	PDT (PCR) + Post-arrival testing	PDT (PCR or ART)	PDT (PCR)
12 Unvaxxed	PDT (PCR or ART)	PDT (PCR) 14 days quarantine	PDT (PCR or ART)	PDT (PCR) 7 days quarantine
12+ Vaxxed	PDT (PCR or ART)	PDT (PCR)	PDT (PCR or ART)	PDT (PCR)

Italy

Unvaccinated people aged under 18 entering Italy with ‘List D’ travel history (Singapore) accompanied by a fully vaccinated adult are exempt from the country’s five-day quarantine, but they must still do a PDT if they are aged 6 or older. This needs to be in the form of:

• A PCR or ART test conducted no more than 72 hours prior to arrival.

Note that it is your arrival time in Italy that is counted for the test validity, not your flight’s departure time.

For example if you’re planning to get a PCR test and you’re flying to Milan on SQ378, which lands at 6.10am on Thursday, the test must be conduced no earlier than 6.10am Italy time on Monday, which is 1.10pm on Monday in Singapore.

See here for details.

Canada

The big stumbling block is that unvaccinated 12 year olds are subject to 14 days quarantine when they enter Canada, even with a negative pre-departure PCR test and even when travelling with fully vaccinated adults. See here for details.

That makes a leisure trip with an unvaccinated 12 year old wholly unrealistic for most families.

Those aged 5 or over travelling to Canada (unvaccinated aged 5-11 or fully vaccinated aged 12+) must have a pre-departure PCR test conducted within 72 hours before the departure time of their last direct flight to Canada.

Unvaccinated children aged 5-11 will also have to conduct an arrival test and a Day 8 test. They are also restricted from crowded settings (e.g. amusement parks, sporting events) and cannot travel on public transport for the first 14 days.

As an adult, you may also be selected for mandatory randomised arrival testing in Canada, even though you are fully vaccinated and took a pre-departure PCR test. You do not need to isolate while awaiting the result, and the test is free.

USA

All travellers flying to the USA from Singapore must complete a pre-departure PCR or ART test, regardless of their vaccination status.

If you’re travelling with children, do note that those aged 2 or older will still require a PDT. This needs to be in the form of:

• A PCR or ART test conducted within a 3-day window of your flight’s departure date.

For example, if you’re flying from Singapore to Los Angeles on a Thursday at 7.55pm on SQ38, your test can be taken anytime from Monday at 00:00 onwards.

See here for details.

Australia

Australia is joining the VTL on 8th November 2021, however only fully vaccinated Australian citizens and residents can enter the country in the initial stage, with international visitors including Singapore residents expected to be eligible in late November or early December, to the initial three states participating.

If you’re an Australian returning to the ACT, New South Wales or Victoria with a child aged 12 to 17 years old who isn’t fully vaccinated, they must:

• undertake a PCR test within 24 hours of arriving; and
• quarantine at home for 7 days.

They must take a second PCR test on day 5 of their isolation period.

Unvaccinated 12 year olds are again the stumbling block here. With the rules unlikely to change by the time Australia opens up to international tourists, you may need to wait until your 12 year old is fully vaccinated to travel there as a family quarantine-free.

Australia’s pre-departure PCR test requirement applies to all passengers aged 5 and above. It must be taken within 72 hours of your first international flight. See here for details.

What about the other VTL countries?

For the most part, there’s not much to worry about when travelling to the other VTL countries with unvaccinated children

Denmark

There are no additional testing requirements for unvaccinated children aged 12 or below when travelling on the VTL to and from Denmark.

Unvaccinated people entering Denmark must complete an on-arrival test, but children under 16 are exempt from this requirement, so there should be no impact for Singapore families on a VTL trip.

Switzerland

Switzerland joins the VTL on 8th November 2021.

Unvaccinated children and adolescents under the age of 18 arriving from Singapore are allowed to enter Switzerland, provided they are accompanied by fully vaccinated adults.

Pre-departure testing is required for unvaccinated children aged 16 or over, but this would not affect Singapore families using the VTL since they need to be fully vaccinated to get home quarantine-free anyway.

What Switzerland says

Switzerland does make a slightly strange statement here (our emphasis):

“Children under 18 years who cannot be vaccinated because of their age may enter with their vaccinated companions (parents, siblings, grandparents or other caretakers).”

While we think it’s unlikely – in theory Switzerland could say that a 12 year old can be vaccinated in Singapore, and so is not exempt from the requirement to be fully vaccinated.

The semantics are probably unintentional, but to be on the safe side we’d recommend only travelling to Switzerland with your 12 year old once they are fully vaccinated (immediately on receipt of the second dose, in this case).

United Kingdom

If you’re travelling to the UK with unvaccinated children, entry is not affected since those under 18 years of age are not required to be fully vaccinated when resident in “a country with an approved proof of vaccination” (like Singapore).

The wording is a little strange, but what they are basically saying here is that provided we recognise vaccine certificates issued in your country (for those that need them) – you don’t need one if you’re under 18!

Do note that children aged 5 to 17 will still be required to complete a ‘Day 2’ post-arrival test in the UK, whether vaccinated or not, which also applies to all adults (18+) entering the country. The day you enter the UK is ‘Day 0’.

This can be a cheaper ART test (lateral flow), rather than a PCR test. You must pre-book the test with a private provider prior to checking in for your flight, since you are required to quote the booking reference number on your passenger locator form.

You do not need to complete the test if you are no longer in the UK on Day 2 (e.g. if you take the train to France on Day 1), but you will still have to book one. They start at around £19 (~S$35) per person.

You can take the test any time between arriving in the UK and Day 2, so for many of our readers visiting for a holiday it will be easier to book the test at Heathrow T2 Arrivals / T5 arrivals, or at Manchester T2 Arrivals (around £35 or S$65 per person in these cases).

South Korea

South Korea will allow children up to five years of age on the date of entry to travel with fully vaccinated adults on the VTL when it commences on 15th November.

The full details of the process have not yet been announced, so we don’t know at this stage whether pre-departure / on-arrival testing will be imposed by South Korea on these young children.

Age	🇰🇷 South Korea
0 – 5	Entry allowed PDT requirement to be confirmed
6 – 11	No entry
12 Unvaccinated
12+ Vaccinated	PDT (PCR)

Unvaccinated children aged 6 to 11 will not be able to use the South Korea VTL. If you are travelling with children aged 12 or above to South Korea, they must be fully vaccinated.

Testing costs

If you or your children require a pre-departure test in Singapore before embarking on a VTL trip, here’s our latest rundown of the cheapest locations to get a test suitable for travel.

Note in particular that self-administered ART tests are not accepted for travel purposes, so you’ll still need to visit a clinic and obtain a certificate from the health provider when travelling to countries that accept an ART swab.

Based on our recent analysis, pre-departure test costs in Singapore are around:

• PCR: S$125 (cheapest) – S$156 (average)
• ART: S$27 (cheapest) – S$37 (average)

Returning to Singapore

Thankfully when your VTL trip is complete and you’re on your way back to Singapore, the testing policy is simple:

• PDT (PCR) within 48 hours of your VTL flight departure time
• On-arrival PCR test at Changi Airport (S$160)

Children aged 2 and below in the calendar year (i.e. for arrivals at Changi in 2021, those born on 1st January 2019 or afterwards) are exempt from both of these tests.

Singapore’s policy of allowing unvaccinated children up to and including the age of 12 to use the VTL is helpful for parents, but there are additional pre-departure testing and in some cases quarantine requirements in place for several other VTL countries, so you need to be careful.

In Singapore, your child must have crossed their 12th birthday to book their first vaccination dose appointment. That means there will be a minimum five-week period between their 12th birthday and fully vaccinated status for travel to most countries, during which time:

• they will need a PDT to travel to Spain, Germany, France and the Netherlands
• they will be subject to arrival quarantine when travelling to Germany, Canada and Australia.

Obviously the longer your child goes after their 12th birthday without having been vaccinated, the longer these requirements will be a stumbling block.

For other young unvaccinated children aged 11 and below, there are pre-departure test requirements for many countries in common with those required for fully vaccinated adults, right down to the age of 2 in some cases (USA).

For those travelling to Canada with unvaccinated children aged 5-11 there are also up to two additional tests for them to complete, plus movement restrictions for 14 days – not exactly a stress-free holiday!

Are you planning to travel on the VTL with unvaccinated children? Let us know if you have any questions in the comments section below.

(Cover Photo: Shutterstock)