Asia Today: Hong Kong, Singapore OK quarantine-free travelHong Kong and Singapore will start an air travel bubble later this month, allowing travelers from each city to visit the other without entering quarantine
November 11, 2020, 1:26 PM
6 min read
Share to FacebookShare to TwitterEmail this articleHONG KONG -- Hong Kong and Singapore will start an air travel bubble at the end of November, allowing travelers from each city to visit the other without entering quarantine in a first step to stimulate tourism amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Starting Nov. 22, visitors from either city must have a negative virus test result before they leave, when they arrive and before they return. Flights designated to carry passengers in the bubble will carry a maximum of 200 travelers each. It will start with one flight a day to each city and increase to two designated flights Dec. 7.
The bubble will be suspended for two weeks if either Hong Kong or Singapore reports a seven-day moving average of more than five untraceable coronavirus infections, according to the Hong Kong government.
“Hong Kong and Singapore are similar in terms of epidemic control. Both are regional aviation hubs and international cities, enjoying strong trade, investment, finance, tourism and people-to-people ties,” said Hong Kong’s secretary for commerce and economic development Edward Yau. “The revival of cross-border air travel between the two places is of utmost importance.”
He said that he hopes the aviation, tourism, hotel and retail businesses will benefit from the bubble, and that it would gradually help Hong Kong’s economy to recover.
Separately, government officials also announced that Hong Kong residents returning to the city from Guangdong province or Macau will be exempted from quarantine from Nov. 23, as long as they register in advance and test negative for the coronavirus.
However, the exemption from quarantine is only one-way, and Hong Kong residents travelling to the mainland must still serve 14 days of quarantine on arrival.
A temporary daily quota of visitors is in place. This is to ensure it can be handled smoothly and without overcrowding, according to Tommy Yuen, director of special duties at the Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau.
In other developments in the Asia-Pacific region:
— Vanuatu has recorded its first case of the coronavirus after a citizen who had been repatriated from the United States tested positive while in quarantine. The Pacific nation had been among the last few countries to have avoided the virus altogether. Health authorities say the 23-year-old man was asymptomatic when he returned on Nov. 4 and his infection was confirmed Tuesday after routine day 5 testing. Authorities say they plan to keep everyone from the same flight in quarantine and to trace the man’s close contacts but don’t need to impose any broader measures in the nation of 300,000 people.
— India’s capital has recorded a new peak of 7,830 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours as festivals and weddings attended by large crowds fuel a resurgence. Authorities targeted testing in shopping areas, workplaces and religious places with New Delhi’s tally continuing to be more than 7,000 daily this week after dropping to nearly 1,000 in September. India's infections overall have held steady recently with 44,281 new cases reported Wednesday. The Health Ministry also reported 512 deaths, taking total fatalities to 127,571. Testing in India has generally remained opaque, with the government not sharing the total share of rapid tests that India has used to boost its testing levels in the past months. The rapid antigen tests can miss infections, while the RT-PCR molecular tests are more reliable.
