In this COVID-19 pandemic, there’s one kind of bubble you may like.
Besides the soap bubbles from washing your hands of course.
And that’s the travel bubble between Hong Kong and Singapore.
Basically, residents of both countries are allowed to travel back and forth without needing to be quarantined.
Only after passing coronavirus tests, of course. These also may end up being really expensive.
And while talks of the bubble coming “soon” have been floating about for awhile, you’ll be glad to know we have a confirmation date.
Hopefully lah.
Travel Bubble to Begin Next Month
Better start digging up your passport.
According to SCMP, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam revealed today (27 October) that the travel bubble between Singapore and Hong Kong will likely start next month.
Some of us will finally have use for that luggage bag collecting dust, now.
Lam says that Singapore and Hong Kong have both shown success in controlling the virus.
And this has shown to be true.
Hong Kong has had only eight new cases on 26 October and we only had three new non-community cases on the same day.
There will also be no restrictions on the trips aside from mandatory virus tests.
And if you thought our total virus cases at around 57,000 was low, Hong Kong has us beat at only 5,303 as of this writing.
Are things looking more huat now?
Saving Thousands of Jobs
It’s no secret that the COVID-19 has cost many people their jobs.
And the tourism industry is definitely one of the most affected areas.
Hong Kong tour agents warned that at least 6,000 jobs could be lost in a few months of the country’s border did not reopen.
Lam states that they are working “very hard” and have “heard the plight of travel industry stakeholders.”
Pretty sure that’s the same here in Singapore.
Hong Kong has only had three border checkpoints open since February and almost all non-residents were barred from going into Hong Kong.
Even visitors from mainland China, Macau and Taiwan must be quarantined.
Locally, we’ve had our own troubles too.
Singapore Airlines had taken a hard hit on 10 September too where 2,400 staff members were retrenched.
Pilots who stayed had to face huge pay cuts as well.
Usage and Speed Of Virus Tests
The speed of virus tests is also another point of consideration.
Currently, travellers need to wait between eight hours to possibly overnight for a test result.
Luckily, Hong Kong’s Airport Authority is pushing for rapid virus tests to happen as soon as 28 October. Lam stated that she wanted to see if this could be more used in the future.
Fast is best, after all.
Four testing centres will also be set up at the following locations for emergency outbreak scenarios.
These include Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, New Territories East and New Territories West.
Over here, we also have a pretty effective test, too.
They look for fragments of the virus’ genetic material in a patient sample but take a whole 48 hours to see the results.
But hopefully, we would be done with the Breathalyser by then. It works like the drink-driving detection variant, only for COVID-19 and with a 90% success rate.
So now that things are beginning to look up, will you take risk of travelling?
Reader Bao: Yes, but my wallet doesn’t agree.
#truestory
Here’s a simplified summary of the South Korea martial law that even a 5-year-old would understand:
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