Both Hong Kong and Singapore will allow passengers to transit again from the beginning of June. This can be seen as first step in opening of international travel.
The Singaporean Government has confirmed that passenger transit will resume from 2nd June. Singapore serves as a major transit hub for flights between the Asia-Pacific and Europe.
Currently, passengers can only transit through Singapore if they are on repatriation flights organised by their governments.
The Singapore Civil Aviation Authority has said opening the airport to transit passengers will be crucial in the reopening of the city.
"As a precaution, stringent measures will be instituted to ensure that the transit passengers remain in designated facilities in the transit area and do not mix with other passengers whilst at Changi Airport. Airport staff will be required to wear personal protective equipment when interacting with passengers." Singapore Civil Aviation Authority
Singapore has banned transit passengers since 24th March. In addition, the country's Prime Minister also enacted a ban on short stay-visitors to combat imported coronavirus cases.
Hong Kong will partly resume transit services at its international airport on 1st of June, as the business hub gradually reopens while keeping the coronavirus at bay.
"Transit services at the airport, which have been suspended since Mar 25, will partly resume on June 1,"
Chief Executive Carrie Lam
Further details on lifting transit flight restrictions were expected to be unveiled at a press conference by health officials later.
Hong Kong was one of the first places to record COVID-19 when it broke out of mainland China. But the city has since made impressive headway against the virus with a little over 1,000 recorded infections and four deaths out of a population of 7.5 million people.
Anyone arriving at the airport is not allowed into the city until they take a coronavirus test. Those found to be positive are immediately quarantined.
Hong Kong International Airport has begun trials of full-body disinfection stations. Autonomous cleaning robots have also been deployed to sterilise public toilets and other heavily-used passenger facilities.
Feature Image: Hong Kong International Airport
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