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Singapore will announce resumption of travel bubble with Hong Kong 'hopefully very soon', says MOT after reports of cancellation

Singapore will announce resumption of travel bubble with Hong Kong 'hopefully very soon', says MOT after reports of cancellation
he news comes after media reports said Singapore and Hong Kong had called off plans to announce the air travel bubble.
PHOTO: The Straits Times, Reuters

SINGAPORE - The date for the air travel bubble between Singapore and Hong Kong has yet to be fixed, said the Ministry of Transport (MOT) on Thursday (April 22).

The news comes after media reports said Singapore and Hong Kong had called off plans to announce the air travel bubble on Thursday.

The cancellation was initiated by the Singapore side, according to a Bloomberg report.

In response to queries from The Straits Times, an MOT spokesman said that the two cities have been in close consultations on the travel arrangement, which was initially slated to take off in November last year.

"We have not fixed a date to announce the resumption of the bubble, but will do so once we are ready, hopefully very soon," the ministry's spokesman added.

The Singapore-Hong Kong arrangement was postponed to this year after a surge in Covid-19 cases in Hong Kong.

Recent talks suggested that the travel bubble might begin soon with the Covid-19 situation improving in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam had said on April 13 that she expects "an early indication of agreement between the two side" on the travel bubble.

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On April 14, Singapore Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung announced that details of the arrangement to restart all forms of travel between Singapore and Hong Kong without quarantine were being finalised.

Meanwhile, Singapore is seeing the largest number of reported infections in migrant dormitories in months.

Eleven coronavirus cases were detected at Westlite Woodlands dormitory on Wednesday.

This comes after a 35-year-old Bangladeshi construction worker staying at the purpose-built dormitory tested positive for the virus on Monday despite having received both doses of the Covid-19 vaccine.

Migrant worker dorms were declared cleared of the coronavirus on Aug 19 last year, but new dorm clusters and cases have emerged sporadically.

This article was first published in The Straits TimesPermission required for reproduction.

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