Coronavirus: Hong Kong, Singapore to launch long-postponed travel bubble on May 26, allowing quarantine-free entry
- Officials say Hong Kong will still require its residents, as an added safety precaution, to have received their second vaccine dose two weeks before departing for Singapore
- Under the arrangement, one designated flight carrying 200 passengers will be allowed from each side daily to begin with
Announcing the arrangements on Monday, officials said Hong Kong would still require its residents, as an added safety precaution, to have received their second vaccine dose two weeks before departing for Singapore, which would not impose a similar rule on its own travellers.
Those who are aged younger than 16 years, medically advised against being vaccinated, or using travel documents other than Hong Kong passports for departure will be exempted from the vaccination rule. Anyone currently living in Singapore and Hong Kong, regardless of nationality, will be eligible.
Under the arrangement, one designated flight carrying 200 passengers will be allowed from each side daily. The frequency will be increased to two flights per day from each side beginning on June 10 if the coronavirus situation remains stable, but no transit passengers will be allowed.
Cathay Pacific will make the first bubble flight from Hong Kong to Singapore at 9.10am on May 26, returning the next day at 2.45pm. Singapore Airlines will set off with its first 200 passengers to Hong Kong at 8.40am on May 26.
The scheme will be suspended for two weeks if the seven-day moving average of unlinked Covid-19 cases in either city is more than five.
