Singapore to seek more travel bubble arrangements

Singapore said it will keep searching for possibilities of travel bubbles with other regions even after an arrangement with Hong Kong suffered a setback, the Straits Times reported.

Potential partners could be the countries where the city-state has already opened its borders to, the paper said, citing Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung.

Singapore currently allows short-term visitors from Australia, Brunei, China, New Zealand and Vietnam to enter without having to be quarantined, though they must be tested upon arrival.

The Singapore-Hong Kong travel bubble, initially set for Nov. 22, will be reviewed between Christmas and New Year, Ong said.

The arrangement was heralded as a pandemic world-first, allowing people to travel to and from the two places without the need for quarantine, but was delayed after a surge in cases in Hong Kong.

There were no new locally-transmitted infections in Singapore, the health ministry said Sunday, though five new imported cases were detected. (Bloomberg)