Singapore and Hong Kong postponed the start of an aviation bubble on Saturday to boost tourism in both cities after a sharp rise in the coronavirus. At a news conference, Singapore's prime minister, Edward Leung Chun-Ying, said the "travel bubble" originally planned for Sunday would be delayed by at least two weeks.
The scheme will allow travelers from the two cities to travel without quarantine, undergo coronavirus testing, and fly to their destination on designated flights.
The two cities announced that the program would begin on Saturday when they resume travel to other countries and lift the quarantine for foreigners. Hong Kong's chief executive, Leung Chun-Ying, said the "travel bubble" between Hong Kong and Singapore would begin on November 22.
It would be increased to two flights a day between cities from 7 December and then to three flights a day on 14 and 16 December.
Hong Kong and Singapore have agreed to create an air bubble that will allow a temporary reduction in the number of flights between the two cities in the coming weeks.
The agreement allows travelers to circumvent the required 14-day quarantine and fly with certain airlines. While Singapore has already made specific travel arrangements, including short-term air tickets for certain countries within the region, the less restrictive agreement is an important step in keeping the city on track to keep the low incidence of coronavirus low.
Both sides will announce an official launch date and further details in the coming weeks, according to a press release from Hong Kong's Health Ministry.
Flights were originally scheduled to take off on Sunday but were suspended after the pandemic in Hong Kong escalated. Since the original agreement in mid-October, bubble flights have been suspended because the average flight movements between the two countries in the last three months between Singapore and Hong Kong have been more than five. The flight was suspended due to the "escalating pandemics" in the region, the health ministry said.
"We are postponing the start of our first flight from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore, "it said, adding that two governments would announce when flights would resume in early December.
Hong Kong reported 43 new cases of coronavirus on Saturday, including 13 undetectable local infections, and the moving average for the area on Friday was 2.14. The number of cases of whether a person has crossed the five-point threshold has soared in the past three months, with 36 cases locally, 13 of which could not be traced, Hong Kong's health ministry said.
If the average of five is not reached by Saturday in Hong Kong, the bubble will be pushed back during the talks. Air travel in the "bubble" will be suspended if five of the seven-day moving averages are exceeded, the WHO said.
Singapore and Hong Kong postponed the start of an air traffic bubble on Saturday to boost tourism in both cities. The postponement came a day after Hong Kong's top health official said Friday that the city was likely to see a new wave of cases. WHO spokesman Edward Kwok Kwan-Kung told a news conference that the trip to the bladder, originally scheduled for Sunday, will be delayed by at least two weeks.
In a separate media briefing on Wednesday, government officials said Hong Kong and Singapore will build a bubble on November 22 that will replace quarantine with Covid 19 tests. A maximum of 200 people will be allowed on each flight and the details of the agreement, published a day after the two Asian hubs first announced they would reopen their borders to each other, will be reviewed for a month. A Department of Health spokesman said no daily increase was planned until December 7.
A maximum of 200 people will be allowed on each flight and the details of the agreement, published a day after the two Asian hubs first announced they would reopen their borders to each other, will be reviewed for a month. Hong Kong's chief executive, Leung Chun-Ying, welcomed Singapore's announcement that it would form a "bubble" for the first time in more than a decade.
After seven months of border closures, the governments of the two financial centers are now proposing to open up to each other, and the bubble could burst within weeks. The agreement was confirmed in a statement by Singapore's Foreign Minister Edward Yau and Hong Kong's Chief Executive Leung Chun-Ying.
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