Ahead of Hong Kong travel bubble launch, Singapore ramps up testing, tightens entry rules for travellers

A Singapore Airlines aircraft on the tarmac at Changi International Airport. Photo: AFP

Singapore authorities will tighten entry specifications for most travellers from next Tuesday, even as it prepares to launch quarantine-cost-free journey with Hong Kong, with an announcement on the begin day of the journey bubble predicted on Wednesday.

In a press statement on Tuesday, Singapore’s multi-ministry job drive to regulate the Covid-19 pandemic said travellers getting into Singapore who were being not citizens or long-lasting people from 11.59pm on November 17 should demonstrate a destructive coronavirus check taken 72 hrs ahead of their flight to the city condition.

Hong Kong set to reveal aspects of journey bubble with Singapore

Only nine “decrease-danger” countries and areas are exempted – Hong Kong, mainland China, Brunei, New Zealand, Vietnam, Australia, Macau, Taiwan, and Malaysia excluding Sabah.

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It also pointed out that travellers from Hong Kong would continue on to provide the 7-working day keep property see in their location of home if they were “not beneath the approved Singapore-Hong Kong Air Journey Bubble”.

Equally governments had, in saying strategies to open up their borders to every other for leisure vacation right after more than 8 months, said there would be specified journey bubble flights. These would only be for travellers who experienced been in both town for at the very least 14 times ahead of departure and not transit passengers. Travellers would have to have to consider mutually-recognised Covid-19 assessments.

Airlines plying the world’s 17th busiest route between the air hubs experienced kept mum about flight functions, leaving travellers wanting to know if prearranged bookings would instantly qualify for the journey bubble.

Hong Kong travel bubble: Singapore Airways to use scaled-down plane

Singapore Airlines is now providing tickets for 10 flights a week involving the two metropolitan areas, though Hong Kong’s flagship carrier Cathay Pacific has been executing so for its 7 flights a week.

Hong Kong’s commerce secretary Edward Yau Tang-wah explained this month the bubble would start to the close of November.

There would be at least one particular flight involving the two metropolitan areas every working day and travel businesses could start selling tickets by the middle of the thirty day period, he explained.

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Hong Kong and Singapore have agreed options for a journey bubble. File image

Flight queries involving Singapore and Hong Kong leapt to 50 for every cent of 2019 ranges following the announcement of the vacation bubble. The range of realised bookings subsequently jumped to 30 for every cent of pre-disaster ranges from the similar time previous yr a 7 days right after the announcement on Oct 15, in accordance to travel knowledge firm ForwardKeys.

Requested if Singapore would establish journey bubbles with Macau and Taiwan, Instruction Minister Lawrence Wong, who co-chairs the virus activity force, said the governing administration was open to it.

The new tighter regulations for other travellers ended up based on indicators these types of as the selection of situations and measures place in place by all those economies right before deciding on the restrictions.

“There is some qualitative evaluation on major of the claimed figures,” he explained.

“It really is a dynamic process due to the fact the condition evolves quite fast so we repeatedly update the classification.”

Singapore-Hong Kong journey bubble: travellers could devote US$600 on Covid-19 assessments

Singapore appears to be to have contained the virus, with several or no new situations in the neighborhood in the earlier couple of weeks. Far more social routines and meetings have resumed, with some bars and nightclubs reopening from following month less than a pilot programme.

The country was now increasing the accessibility of coronavirus testing, the endeavor drive explained. Corporations or men and women who need a exam can procure test kits or services from some 600 clinics throughout the island starting up November 30.

“We are also conducting pilots on pre-event tests working with antigen immediate assessments to help much more huge-scale and larger-risk pursuits to resume in a safer fashion,” claimed the press statement.

Officials also touched on vaccines, provided American pharmaceutical enterprise Pfizer’s announcement on Monday that its experimental Covid-19 vaccine was additional than 90 for each cent effective.

Health Minister Gan Kim Yong, the other co-chair of the task force, said the town state had additional broadened and diversified its vaccine portfolio right with “a amount of” pharmaceutical firms, in a bid to strengthen its chances of securing a vaccine for Singaporeans. He declined to elaborate on which vaccine providers Singapore was performing with, citing business confidentiality and noting that some contracts have been continue to getting negotiated.

Gan included the health ministry experienced past thirty day period established up a committee built up of experts to closely watch details from vaccine medical trials, and would suggest the vaccination strategy for unique segments of the Singapore population.

Even with a vaccine, it would take time to vaccinate the complete inhabitants, the overall health minister built mentioned.

Extra reporting by Danny Lee

This posting at first appeared on the South China Morning Write-up (www.scmp.com), the leading information media reporting on China and Asia.

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