Third time’s the charm? Ong Ye Kung brings up SG-HK travel bubble again

Singapore — Health Minister Ong Ye Kung set a significant pandemic marker when he flew to Hong Kong to attend the inaugural Asia Summit on Global Health.

He is the first minister from a foreign government to have set foot in Hong Kong since the pandemic began. He said in a social media post on Wednesday (Nov 24), the day that the summit was held, that he was glad to be able to participate along with senior health officials from the region, including Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam.

“All of us shared the conviction that the virus cannot stop us from collaborating and connecting, and we will beat the virus together,” added Mr Ong.

While their itinerary was “controlled” they “managed to get some delicacies delivered to our quarantine hotel!” he said.

At the conference, he expressed the hope of establishing a travel bubble between Singapore and Hong Kong, which had been discussed—and foiled—twice last year.

“We hope that at some point, as we bring our infection down further, our bubble between Hong Kong and Singapore can be realised again,” he said.

With the infection rates in Singapore as they are now, he said, “we find that around the world there are many countries and places where [the] infection level is about the same, so they become possible partners for us to open up to”.

Using the Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL), people from 21 territories can travel here without needing to quarantine.

However, a travel bubble with Hong Kong may be more challenging, as the two cities have different approaches to managing the pandemic. Hong Kong has stuck to the Covid-Zero approach, while since mid-2021, Singapore has begun treating the virus as endemic, and has been slowly reopening while people get used to  “living with” Covid.

Plans to establish a travel bubble were thwarted in November last year, and again last May because of a surge first in Hong Kong and then in Singapore.

“Unfortunately, bubbles are fragile things,” the South China Morning Post quoted Mr Ong as saying.

The first SG-HK travel bubble was supposed to have been launched on Nov 22, 2020, with 200 people from each city allowed to travel on one daily flight to the other.

But the day before it was due to start, the travel bubble was popped by a virus spike in Hong Kong. 

Then in April, Singapore’s Transport Ministry (MOT) announced that the travel bubble with Hong Kong would start on May 26. That bubble was also deflated as new cases started to rise in Singapore. /TISG

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