South china morning post
Coronavirus: Hong Kong’s hopes for a travel bubble for Singapore, Australia and beyond depend on pandemic control and vaccination rates
Hong Kong’s desire to reboot its coronavirus-ravaged tourism sector by creating air travel bubbles with seven overseas destinations could prove difficult as control over the pandemic, vaccination pace and vaccine choices vary from country to country. When the fourth wave of Covid-19 in Hong Kong showed signs of subsiding and a vaccination campaign was underway, Minister of Commerce and Economic Development Edward Yau Tang-wah announced on Monday that the government had sent a new proposal to Singapore To restore a planned trip bubble while writing to six other countries to resume talks on such plans. A source familiar with the matter said Tuesday the proposal touched on vaccination of Hong Kong residents as a condition of joining the travel bubble program, a unilateral proposal that has not yet been tabled by the Singapore government. Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from all over the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform for curated content with explanations, FAQs, analysis and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team. Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said Tuesday morning that she had told her officials to look into the arrangements required for bilateral travel. “Of course, vaccination will make it easier to resume travel to some extent, but I’m sure you realize that when we talk about travel it’s a bilateral thing,” she said, adding that it is the other way too Side lay ease of entry for Hong Kong residents. Hong Kong to lift ban on UK residents; The quarantine rules for arrivals from Australia, New Zealand and Singapore are to be relaxed. Whether vaccination is compulsory when traveling from Hong Kong is up to the receiving side to decide, she said. If partners like Singapore wanted Hong Kong people to be vaccinated before they could enter the city-state, Lam said she would have to tell residents. With a travel bubble mechanism in place between Singapore and Hong Kong since November last year and vaccination campaigns in both locations, travel experts said the city-state is a front runner over other potential countries like Japan, South Korea, Australia. New Zealand, Thailand and Vietnam. “Singapore has a good chance of coming first based on the fundamentals in place,” said Tommy Tam Kwong-shun, chairman of the Society of IATA Passenger Agents, a coalition of Hong Kong’s largest travel agencies. “In addition to pandemic control, vaccination is of great importance for the success of travel bubbles.” Tam said the tourism industry hopes the border with mainland China will reopen first. Beijing previously stated that the Hong Kong border would not be restored if the city had not hit zero infection rates. “The geographic scope of the Return2HK program is a good sign,” he said. Under the new regime, the Hong Kong city government will allow Hong Kong residents returning home by air from anywhere in China to skip the quarantine provided they test negative for Covid-19, which so far has only been done for those from Guangdong Province and Macau was true. Below, the Post is reviewing the pandemic status and readiness of the potential targets, and is contacting the various consulates around the city for comment. First stop in Singapore? The city and Singapore were forced to postpone their planned travel bubble at the eleventh hour in late November, as Hong Kong was hit by the fourth wave of infections. However, Commerce Minister Yau said the city can now move ahead with the plan after the number of untraceable infections declined since earlier this month and fell below the threshold of a weekly average of five cases. Hong Kong has largely kept its fourth wave in check and recently logged two days with no local infections. It has a history of 11,461 confirmed infections and 205 deaths. The vaccination rate remains low, however: around 6 percent of the 7.5 million inhabitants have received at least one dose of vaccine. Singapore has done better with no local infections reported for most of March. The ailing travel industry in Hong Kong calls for mutual recognition of vaccines as hopes of a bubble rise. June Ang, a 31-year-old Singaporean entrepreneur based in Hong Kong, is keen to join the travel bubble after previous delay disrupted her financial advisory business. Ang, who is “cautiously optimistic,” said she received a Covid-19 surge just to be “on standby” when the bladder opened as officials indicated a vaccination would be needed. “I follow the local Hong Kong cases on a daily basis,” she said. “When the travel bubble is high, I hope to be one of the first to book flights and save a lot of quarantine time in Singapore.” Japan a Distant Dream Japan is a popular travel destination for Hong Kong people and has seen an unstable virus situation for the past three months. Since the beginning of March, more people have become sick. With 472,000 Covid-19 patients and more than 9,100 deaths, the country’s decision to turn away an estimated 600,000 visitors to the Tokyo Olympics in July and a slow start to vaccinations means a travel bubble is relatively far away. “The Hong Kong bubble looks like it will happen at a later date, although many Hong Kong residents can’t wait to go back,” said Tam. The Japanese consulate in Hong Kong said a plan was “still under negotiation.” and can therefore not announce any details for the time being. The Hong Kong-Singapore air travel bubble is unlikely to start anytime soon. The country opened its doors only to its long-term residents to return from places like Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia and Taiwan in September last year. However, the program was suspended on Tuesday. Japan launched its vaccination program last month, making it one of the last countries to do so. The government delayed rollout to conduct further testing of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine. Thailand, need a stabbing consensus? The Thai authorities will allow vaccinated foreigners to travel to the holiday island of Phuket in July without quarantine. The country launches China-made Sinovac Biotech vaccine and Europe-made AstraZeneca vaccine. Tourism Sector Lawmaker Yiu Si-wing said any travel links Hong Kong would agree to would include consensus on vaccines. Hong Kong uses Germany’s BioNTech and Sinovac from mainland China. Australia, New Zealand already in bubble The Australian consulate said its government had received a letter from the Hong Kong government about future travel arrangements and the possible reconnection of travel links. While Australia had built a travel bubble with New Zealand, the consulate said that any further expansion would require “a gradual process backed up by health advice.” Existing border controls in Australia require passengers allowed to enter the country to present a negative Covid-19 test before boarding a flight, while vaccinated passengers still have to go through a 14-day quarantine upon arrival. Australia and New Zealand have recorded very few Covid-19 cases in the past three to four months. Hong Kong is exploring ways to incentivize coronavirus vaccine intake, while the launch of Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack earlier this month said his country had “productive talks” with Singapore about creating a travel bubble. Approximately 590,000 of Australia’s 25 million people have been vaccinated. New Zealand’s vaccination program started last month and authorities planned to vaccinate the 5 million residents by the end of this year. Vietnam a no go Since March 22, all foreigners have been banned from entering the country in response to the resurgence of Covid-19. Vietnam has a short-term travel agreement with Japan that allows business stays. However, the system has reportedly been used primarily by diplomats since it was launched last November. South Korea in travel bubble talks South Korean Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said earlier this month his country is also in talks with other places to create travel bubbles, although he did not specify the destinations. The Taiwanese government later said it had discussed such a program with South Korea, Japan, Singapore and Vietnam. South Korea announced plans earlier this month to vaccinate a quarter of its 52 million residents by June. There were about 300 to 400 new cases every day in March, bringing the total in the country to over 103,000 and more than 1,700 deaths as of March 30. More from the South China Morning Post: An air travel bubble between Hong Kong and Singapore is unlikely to launch anytime soon as the coronavirus pandemic is still classified as too unstable. Singapore and Hong Kong Travel Bubble: Don’t Let Business Needs Endanger Public Health. Coronavirus: Hong Kong, Singapore in talks again about postponed travel bubble adjusting for a “new normal”, Cathay Pacific said demand for flights between Hong Kong and Singapore was “overwhelming” before the fourth wave of Covid-19 delay Delays forced control, vaccination rate first appeared on South China Morning Post, For the latest news from South China Morning Post, download our mobile app. Copyright 2021.
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