Hong Kong health authorities said Saturday (Oct. 17) that 17 new cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in Hong Kong, all of which were imported cases. Saturday also marked the second time since Sept. 29 that Hong Kong recorded zero local confirmed cases.
Of the 17 new cases on Saturday, 11 were from India, 2 from Indonesia, and 4 from the Philippines, Morocco, Pakistan, and France, respectively. The age of the cases ranged from 4 to 50 years. As of the 17th, there were a total of 5237 confirmed cases and 105 deaths in Hong Kong from the new coronary pneumonia outbreak.
Hong Kong authorities decided to ground flights of Air India from Delhi and Air Vistara from Chennai for 14 days starting Saturday. The two airlines loaded 10 passengers infected with the new coronavirus on the 15th.
On the other hand, Hong Kong and Singapore agreed in principle this week on a reciprocal travel bubble agreement, which will allow Hong Kong and Singapore to form reciprocal travel bubbles (ATBs) free from quarantine or home notification, but travelers will still need to prove they tested negative for the virus before traveling.
Under the agreement, special “travel bubble” flights will reportedly be established so that travelers between Hong Kong and Singapore will not share flights with transit passengers.
Singapore’s transport minister said that this is “the first reciprocal travel bubble in the region, and possibly the world,” according to Sina Finance.
Hong Kong hopes to begin implementing the travel bubble agreement in a few weeks, Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Edward Yau said on a Hong Kong radio program Saturday. He also said the Hong Kong Department of Health and the Hong Kong Airport Authority are studying the feasibility of using rapid tests for the new coronavirus at airports to reduce the amount of time travelers have to wait for test results.
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