Singapore-Hong Kong travel bubble delayed amid rise in Hong Kong’s coronavirus cases

SINGAPORE — Singapore and Hong Kong beget postponed their air travel bubble agreement for two weeks.

The announcement came hours after Singapore said the unity, which was set to take effect on Sunday, would go ahead as planned despite a rise in new coronavirus cases in Hong Kong.

“This is to guard public health in both cities as well as travellers’ own health,” Singapore’s aviation authority said in a media report announcing the delay.

Hong Kong’s secretary for commerce and economic development, Edward Yau, said the delay “is necessary to steer clear of any inconvenience caused by the abrupt changes of the scheme to passengers.”

The situation will be reviewed and a new launch date will be produced in December.

Hong Kong reported Saturday that the number of new daily cases jumped to 43 — up from 26 a day earlier. Tons of the cases were local infections. The city has so far recorded more than 5,500 cases and 108 deaths, harmonizing to the government’s website.

Travel authorities from both sides have always said the deal would be hold up if the Covid-19 situation in either city deteriorates.

The Singapore-Hong Kong air travel bubble agreement was initially due to start on Nov. 22 with a separate flight daily into each city, limited to a maximum of 200 passengers per flight.

Under the arrangement — the commencement for both destinations since the pandemic — the number of flights will increase only if the spread of Covid-19 in both new zealand urban areas remains under control.

Earlier Saturday, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore announced that all arriving fares from Hong Kong would be required to take an additional Covid-19 Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test upon traveller. They would also need to self-isolate in their place of residence — be it a hotel or home — as they wait for the dnouement develops which will take about six to eight hours, the aviation authority said.

To be clear, all passengers from Hong Kong guardianship the air travel bubble agreement would have already been required to take a pre-departure Covid-19 PCR test and be established a negative test result before departing for Singapore.

The initial air travel bubble agreement announced on Nov. 11 did not demand any isolation of passengers from Hong Kong upon arrival.

Hong Kong forced new restrictions on Saturday as the city saw a resurgence in the number of cases this past week. Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan disclosed Friday the situation was “severe.”

“We have probably entered into a new wave of cases,” she said at a press briefing on Friday, citing boffins from the Centre for Health Protection.

The government met late Friday to finalize other contingency measures aimed at shoot the spread of the virus, and will not rule out more stringent restrictions, Chief Executive Carrie Lam said in a Facebook support.

New restrictions include the banning of clubs and party rooms, as well as prohibiting live performances and dancing in bars and taverns. The government announced earlier this week that primary schools will be suspended for two weeks from Monday.

The understanding was highly anticipated and hailed as a “milestone” by the Singapore government, as the two cities sought to revive the aviation sector. Both Asian monetary hubs were badly hit by the crisis as they have no domestic demand for flights.

According to travel operator Klook, other countries were closely supervising the success of the deal.

Eric Gnock Fah, the chief operating officer of the bookings platform, told CNBC last week that tourism specialists across Asia were watching to see if the Hong Kong-Singapore travel bubble succeeded, amid hopes of eventually making their own methods for such arrangements.