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But both cities have managed to get their Covid outbreaks under control and reported a low number of local infections in recent months, which is why they agreed on the travel bubble plan in principle during discussions on Wednesday, the statement said.
“This is a milestone in our efforts to resume normalcy as we fight the long battle of Covid-19,” Edward Yau, Hong Kong’s Secretary of Trade and Economic Development, said in the statement.
Ong Ye Kung, Singapore’s transport minister, called it a “significant” advance.
“It is a safe, careful but significant step forward in reviving air travel and providing a model for future collaboration with other parts of the world,” he added.
There is no release date for the travel bubble yet, but details will be developed in the coming weeks, they said.
Under the travel bubble scheme, travelers must have tested negative for Covid-19 through a “mutual recognition” test.
There are no restrictions on the purpose of the trip: visitors can come and go for business, pleasure, study or otherwise. They will fly on designated flights that only serve passengers with travel bubbles.
Essentially, travelers will not be subject to any quarantine notice or stay-at-home requirements, or a controlled itinerary.
However, this all depends on the Covid-19 situation, the statement adds: If virus numbers change anywhere, the plan could change by increasing or decreasing the number of flights, or even suspending the program.
Contain local sprouts
The travel bubble and low boxes from Covid-19 reflect a remarkable shift in both places.
Hong Kong experienced a third wave earlier this summer, with new daily cases jumping single digits to a high of 149 in July. The restrictions, which had been slowly easing, quickly returned, with public gatherings limited to two people and a brief total suspension of all services for dinner.
The restrictions drew public criticism at times: Construction workers and day laborers, for example, were photographed crouching along the sidewalk or near public toilets with boxes of take-out food.
But the restrictions also appear to have worked: Hong Kong’s new case count dropped to around a dozen a day in August, even reaching zero on some days.
Earlier this spring, Singapore struggled to contain rising infection figures, with daily cases exceeding 1,000 a day in April. The vast majority of cases occurred in crowded dormitories for migrant workers, many from South and Southeast Asian countries such as Bangladesh and India.
The authorities closed the dormitories, relocated the infected residents and implemented other measures such as mass testing. The outbreak took months to control and highlighted the poor living conditions of migrant workers to a global audience, but cases gradually declined over the summer. In August, the number of daily cases dropped to dozens.
With the situation stabilized, Singapore has relaxed its restrictions; Aside from Hong Kong’s travel bubble, it also agreed to reopen cross-border travel for essential business with Indonesia, and partially reopen its land border with Malaysia for business travel.
