On First Day of Borders Reopening Between China & S’pore, 22 China Visitors Arrived in S’pore

In case you’ve missed it, Singapore’s been hard at work trying to build connections (literally) with other countries.

New Zealand and Brunei was our first attempt and since then, we’ve gone on to create even more.

And some of them have paid off.

Borders Reopen Between China & Singapore

On 31 Oct 2020, it was reported that Singapore will allow travellers from China and Victoria, Australia to enter without serving quarantine if they test negative for Covid-19 upon arrival.

This applies to both Singaporeans returning from these two areas as well as tourists who want to come here for some rest & relaxation.

According to the Civil Aviation Association of Singapore (CAAS), both Mainland China & Victoria has shown that they have adequate systems in place to keep track of the coronavirus and have curbed the transmission within their own country.

For those who are wondering why this is a factor, Singapore has previously mentioned that one of the factors behind opening their borders is the “risk factor” of the country.

Simply put, if a country has many cases, or don’t have a system in place to fence infections, they’re “high-risk”, and not welcomed here.

You can read more about it here.

In order to be eligible, travellers from these two countries must have stayed within them for the past 14 days.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) website, travellers from Singapore who are not flying to China under the current Singapore-China Fast Lane arrangement might be subjected to a 14-day institutional or home quarantine.

On First Day of Borders Reopening Between China & S’pore, 22 China Visitors Arrived in S’pore

Well, turns out that just as Singapore’s tourism industry have missed tourists, some of the Chinese have missed Singapore as well.

On the first day of reopening on 6 Nov 2020, 22 Chinese nationals travelled to Singapore, according to ST.

All of them tested negative for the coronavirus, CAAS added.

They are, however, unable to determine how many travellers came from the state of Victoria on the first day of reopening since it’s hard to tell them apart from other Australian visitors.

Passports typically identify which country the owner is from and not their state.

Nonetheless, that’s a pretty good sign given how China accounts for 10.7% (7.3 million) of Changi Airport’s passenger movement in 2019.

Hong Kong Travel Bubble

One strong factor behind why Singapore’s border was opened unilaterally to Mainland China is due to Hong Kong.

As an aviation analyst put it, it just “made sense” to extend a similar accord to China after doing so for Hong Kong.

Much more when China has managed to curb stomp Covid-19 pretty effectively (0.09 incidence rate per 100,000 people).

On 15 Oct 2020, it was reported that Singapore has entered an “in-principle” agreement with Hong Kong to start a travel bubble.

Basically, this means that regardless of purpose (whether work or leisure), people can travel to the other country without going through 14-day quarantines (or 7-day, in the case of Singapore).

While the general idea is already out there, the details are still being worked out and will be revealed at a later date.

This, however, isn’t stopping Singaporeans who are working overseas in Hong Kong from rejoicing, especially since they’ve been separated from their families for almost a year now.

Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung has promised that they’ll launch the travel bubble arrangement “soon”.

For the latest travel advisories both in, out and through Singapore, you can check out ICA’s website here.

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