A travel bubble between Singapore and Hong Kong that had been proposed and was within 24 hours of going into effect has now been delayed a second time, until some point in 2021.
The reason given was the number of Covid cases, particularly those that are unlinked, remaining high in Hong Kong. That had already started to increase at a significant rate was what had caused the initial postponement of this travel bubble’s planned Nov. 22 start.
Travel restrictions placed on those entering these countries are strict. Most notably, passengers must take part in quarantine before being allowed any freedom of movement at their destinations. In fact, non-Hong Kong residents will not even be allowed in unless traveling from China, Macau or Taiwan and having only been in those areas or Hong Kong within the past two weeks. Meanwhile, Singapore requires its allowed visitors to engage in Stay-Home Notices with testing taking place at the conclusion of those periods, which normally last 14 days.
Conversely, this travel bubble would have resulted in passengers on Hong Kong-Singapore flights not needing to engage in a quarantine period. Testing taking place prior to departure would have sufficed for those with negative results.
Now, the timeline for the commencement of these flights, which are expected to carry up to 200 passengers and take place once or twice a day, will be reassessed in late December. Officials hope that they can start in January and start to repair some of the financial burdens that Covid has created. During a normal, non-Covid year, about 475,000 passengers travel each way between these cities.
Hong Kong’s 76 additional Covid cases on Nov. 30 and 82 the following day have pushed its total to 6,397. Those are 1.2% and 1.3% increases, respectively. Meanwhile, Singapore’s infection rate has slowed dramatically as of late. It inched upwards by five positive cases on Nov. 30 and 10 on Dec. 1, increases of just 0.01% and 0.02%, respectively. For the most part, these new cases have been imported and traceable. The city-state’s total number of cases since the pandemic started is 58,228.