Singapore desperately seeking travel bubbles amid pandemic
Desperate to revive its air travel industry, Singapore continues to seek new regions to establish travel bubbles with, even as the launch of the first such arrangement with Hong Kong remains on hold, the city state’s transport minister Ong Ye Kung said on December 6.
As it stands, Singapore has opened its borders to short-term visitors from Australia, Brunei, China, New Zealand and Vietnam. Travelers from there are currently allowed to enter Singapore and travel freely as these countries are deemed to have comprehensive public health surveillance systems and successfully controlled the spread of the Covid-19 virus.
Travelers from these countries also do not need to serve a stay-home notice, but must apply for an Air Travel Pass, test negative on arrival and download and use the TraceTogether app while in Singapore.
“We hope they will reciprocate. They can look at Singapore’s numbers – we are really controlling the virus quite well for now… Hopefully, I think, sometime next year, different partners will be willing to open up travel bubbles,” Ong was quoted as saying by The Straits Times.
“We can’t close forever. Everybody knows that,” he added.
Travel bubble with Hong Kong will be reviewed after Christmas
The start date for the Singapore-Hong Kong travel bubble, initially set for Nov 22, will be reviewed between Christmas and New Year.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore said last week that both cities had decided to defer the start date to next year amid a recent spike in Covid-19 cases in Hong Kong. It had earlier been agreed that the arrangement would be suspended if the seven-day moving average for unlinked cases exceeded five in either city.
“I think it is the correct thing to do because you can see right now the cases are at this level – they are not spiking very high, which we are happy to see, but at the same time it’s maintaining at a certain level,” Ong said.
As of December 6, Singapore had 58,260 reported Covid-19 cases, of which 58,158 recovered and 29 died.
Hong Kong, in turn, had 6,898 cases of which 5,567 recovered and 112 died.
Desperate to revive its air travel industry, Singapore continues to seek new regions to establish travel bubbles with, even as the launch of the first such arrangement with Hong Kong remains on hold, the city state's transport minister Ong Ye Kung said on December 6. As it stands, Singapore has opened its borders to short-term visitors from Australia, Brunei, China, New Zealand and Vietnam. Travelers from there are currently allowed to enter Singapore and travel freely as these countries are deemed to have comprehensive public health surveillance systems and successfully controlled the spread of the Covid-19 virus. Travelers from these...
Desperate to revive its air travel industry, Singapore continues to seek new regions to establish travel bubbles with, even as the launch of the first such arrangement with Hong Kong remains on hold, the city state’s transport minister Ong Ye Kung said on December 6.
As it stands, Singapore has opened its borders to short-term visitors from Australia, Brunei, China, New Zealand and Vietnam. Travelers from there are currently allowed to enter Singapore and travel freely as these countries are deemed to have comprehensive public health surveillance systems and successfully controlled the spread of the Covid-19 virus.
Travelers from these countries also do not need to serve a stay-home notice, but must apply for an Air Travel Pass, test negative on arrival and download and use the TraceTogether app while in Singapore.
“We hope they will reciprocate. They can look at Singapore’s numbers – we are really controlling the virus quite well for now… Hopefully, I think, sometime next year, different partners will be willing to open up travel bubbles,” Ong was quoted as saying by The Straits Times.
“We can’t close forever. Everybody knows that,” he added.
Travel bubble with Hong Kong will be reviewed after Christmas
The start date for the Singapore-Hong Kong travel bubble, initially set for Nov 22, will be reviewed between Christmas and New Year.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore said last week that both cities had decided to defer the start date to next year amid a recent spike in Covid-19 cases in Hong Kong. It had earlier been agreed that the arrangement would be suspended if the seven-day moving average for unlinked cases exceeded five in either city.
“I think it is the correct thing to do because you can see right now the cases are at this level – they are not spiking very high, which we are happy to see, but at the same time it’s maintaining at a certain level,” Ong said.
As of December 6, Singapore had 58,260 reported Covid-19 cases, of which 58,158 recovered and 29 died.
Hong Kong, in turn, had 6,898 cases of which 5,567 recovered and 112 died.
