Editorial | Mini travel bubble still the best option

Vaccination and tourism go hand in hand; the continuing threats posed by the Covid-19 pandemic mean that there should not be one without the other. Using travel as an incentive to get immunised against the coronavirus therefore makes sense.

For those hankering for a change of scene after being confined to Hong Kong by restrictions for almost a year-and-a-half, the resumption of cruises and a lucky draw offering free air tickets are enticing inducements. But the schemes will be of limited worth unless getting a jab also involves a meaningful relaxing of quarantining requirements.

Full details of the resumption of the “cruises to nowhere” to start at the end of July and the Airport Authority’s lucky draw offering 60,000 tickets by the end of September are still being worked out. But both schemes share the requirement that passengers and crew have to be fully vaccinated and undergo testing, necessities given the risk of transmission on the confined spaces of a ship or in an aircraft.

Social distancing and contact tracing measures would have to be strictly followed, while a single coronavirus case detected as a result of such trips would necessitate a return and contingency health measures like screening, medical surveillance and quarantining.

With less than one in five Hongkongers having received one vaccine jab and little more than 14 per cent two, any idea that encourages vaccination is to be applauded. But as the two-time postponement of the only successfully negotiated travel bubble, with Singapore, proves, coronavirus outbreaks can too easily send plans awry.