Hong Kong-Singapore travel bubble delayed again amid virus cases

Hong Kong and Singapore further delayed the keenly-anticipated travel corridor between the Asian financial hubs, a setback for the region’s airlines and tourism businesses seeking to start a recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. The travel bubble will be delayed beyond 2020, and the cities will review the arrangement for 2021 toward late December, according to a Hong Kong government statement Tuesday. The pact, which would allow passengers to travel between the cities without a quarantine, was already postponed by two weeks on Nov 21, a day before flights were due to start. The cities’ virus outbreaks are far less intense than in places such as the US and Europe, but a recent uptick in cases in Hong Kong proved enough to halt the plan. The delay shows just how delicate the process of reopening borders is --even for places that have largely contained the coronavirus. The two sides originally agreed that the bubble would be suspended if local infections exceeded five on a rolling seven-day average. That wasn’t even met in Hong Kong before the initial delay decision, and more recently the city has seen an alarming jump in infections.<br/>