Over 1,000 people have travelled under S'pore-Germany Vaccinated Travel Lane scheme

The bus stops in front of the city hall in Frankfurt, the final destination after an eight-day tour through Germany. Six tourists from Singapore alight and once on the open square, most of them remove their masks. In Germany, masks are currently not compulsory in the open air, and there is no restriction on the size of a group, as long as social distancing - of 1.5m - is maintained. Novita Lam, a 27-year-old bank employee and Instagrammer from Singapore, nevertheless professes to feel safe. "In Germany, there are fewer people crowding the streets and squares than in Singapore," she said. She arrived in Germany just over a week ago with the first tour group from Singapore via the Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) scheme. Her group was the first from Asia since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. On the last day of her trip, she is due to take a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, one of four she will have to undergo as part of the VTL. The remaining three tests will be conducted in Singapore. Since Sept 8, fully vaccinated passengers have been able to travel between Singapore and Germany on designated VTL flights operated by Singapore Airlines (SIA) and German carrier Lufthansa. They must have been in Germany or Singapore for the previous 21 days prior to departure. SIA offers a VTL flight every day; Lufthansa on Thursdays and Saturdays. More than 20 of the VTL flights have since ferried over 1,000 passengers between Singapore and Germany. Lufthansa has seen demand for the route quadrupling since the introduction of the VTL to Singapore. <br/>