Advertisement
Singapore health minister Ong Ye Kung to visit Hong Kong for global conference
- Visit for the inaugural Asia Summit on Global Health will be first time ‘zero-Covid’ Hong Kong has hosted a minister from the city state since the beginning of the pandemic and comes after the collapse of plans for a travel bubble
- Dozens of experts and officials including Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam are to discuss at the summit how countries can work together to prepare for health challenges
Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
5
Singapore’s health minister Ong Ye Kung will be in Hong Kong on Wednesday for a conference on global health, the first time “zero-Covid” Hong Kong has hosted a minister from the city state since the beginning of the pandemic.
The visit comes three months after the two cities dropped an ill-fated plan for a travel bubble that was twice suspended at the eleventh hour.
Ong – who is among a dozen experts attending the inaugural Asia Summit on Global Health to discuss how countries can work together to prepare for potential health challenges – would meet senior Hong Kong government officials, including Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, during the trip, said Singapore’s health ministry.
Singapore’s Covid-19 numbers hover around 1,600 to 2,000 new infections daily. On Monday the country relaxed a two-month-old restriction that limited people dining at restaurants to groups of two. People are now allowed to dine in groups of five.
The country has also reopened its borders, allowing quarantine-free travel for vaccinated people from 21 countries, including areas of Europe where infection numbers are rising.
Hong Kong, meanwhile, still pursues a policy of eliminating the virus, quarantining incoming travellers for up to 21 days. It usually reports no more than a handful of new infections a day, mostly in incoming travellers, and on Monday reported zero cases.
Advertisement