Before Covid-19, Hong Kong was one of the most popular destinations for Singaporeans to travel.
While the hopes of those who miss the city were briefly raised when the Singapore-Hong Kong Travel Bubble was announced, they were dashed when it was later delayed indefinitely.
There’s no word of the bubble being refloated anytime soon, but there’s a glimmer of hope as Singapore has now been deemed as a low-risk country by the Chinese city.
That means travellers coming from here can have a shorter quarantine when entering Hong Kong.
In a press statement, the Hong Kong Government said Singapore, together with Australia and New Zealand, would be placed in a new Group D.
That’s for countries with “low risk” of Covid-19 transmission.
Incidentally, Group A is “extremely high risk”. Brazil, Ireland, South Africa and the United Kingdom (UK) are in this group.
Group B is “very high risk”, and Group C is for all the countries not in the other groups. See the groupings here.
Hong Kong currently requires a compulsory 21-day quarantine for overseas arrivals.
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However, from Friday (9 Apr), travellers from countries in Group D will have to serve 7 days less quarantine, as they’re low risk.
That means they’ll serve 14 days instead.
However, these travellers from Singapore, Australia and NZ will still have to fulfill a few other requirements.
According to HK’s Coronavirus website, even after finishing the 14-day quarantine, they’ll have to “self-monitor” for 7 days after that.
That means being alert to whether they have symptoms of Covid-19 or not.
It includes having own body temperature taken for those 7 days.
More good news for travellers from Singapore is that no Covid-19 test is needed before departure to HK, as long as they’ve been in Singapore for 21 days before departure.
However, they must take a compulsory Covid-19 test 19 days after arrival, i.e. 5 days after finishing quarantine.
These new rules also apply to HK residents.
These measures come as HK reported 14 new cases of Covid-19 on Friday (9 Apr), bringing the total to 11,564.
There have also been 207 deaths.
Though the pandemic is being brought under control in the city, it’s still keeping quarantine measures as they’re not out of the woods yet.
For Singapore to be one of the 3 countries deemed to be low risk by the HK government is a testament to our good handling of the pandemic.
While the 14-day quarantine will still deter most travellers to the city, the relaxed measures mean that HK recognises our good work, and Singapore will be near the top of the list should they open quarantine-free travel.
For travel-deprived Singaporeans, that’s a small consolation that we’ll take.
Do you think we’ll be able to travel to HK very soon? Do share your thoughts with us below.
Have news you must share? Get in touch with us via email at hello@mustsharenews.com.
Featured image adapted from Florian Wehde @ Unsplash.
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