The Singapore-Hong Kong air travel bubble may not start if the threshold of a seven-day moving average of five or fewer unlinked community cases in either city is breached.
Responding to a question about how the recent spike in community cases here may affect the travel bubble, which will allow quarantine-free travel between the two cities from May 26, Education Minister Lawrence Wong said yesterday that Singapore will continue to apply the mechanism of the seven-day moving average, as agreed by both parties. If it starts, but along the way the threshold is breached, then it may well be suspended, said Mr Wong, who is co-chair of the multi-ministry task force tackling Covid-19.
By FELIX TAM AND KYUNGHEE PARK | Bloomberg | Published: April 28, 2021 A quarantine-free air travel bubble between Hong Kong and Singapore is finally slated to get off the ground with a start date of May 26, following setbacks that led to the plan initially being shelved last November. Largely shut off from the rest of the world during the pandemic, the two sides have been in talks for months to revive the travel corridor. In statements and briefings Monday, they laid out details and requirements for would-be travelers, with Hong Kong saying people must have had two vaccine doses at least 14 days before flying. There’s no such requirement from Singapore.
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A long-awaited quarantine-free travel bubble between Hong Kong and Singapore will open on May 26, albeit with more restrictions than had been initially in place, the governments of both regions announced.
The bubble will begin with a single, 200-traveler flight per day in each direction, with Cathay Pacific operating the bubble flight from Hong Kong to Singapore and Singapore Airlines operating it from Singapore to Hong Kong. That will increase to two daily flights in each direction on June 10, with flights allocated evenly between Singapore-based and Hong Kong-based carriers, per the agreement.
Singapore and Hong Kong had planned to start their bubble last November but had to postpone it due to the Covid-19 situation worsening in Hong Kong. That situation has seen gradual stabilization since February, and the pandemic has remained under control in Singapore, according to the governments statement.