Digital Vaccine Passport and Travel Bubble Arrangements

14 Mr Ang Wei Neng asked the Minister for Transport whether he can provide more details on the digital vaccine passport system between Singapore and Australia and travel bubble arrangements with countries that have the COVID-19 pandemic under control.

The Minister for Transport (Mr Ong Ye Kung): Mr Speaker, the question is also on vaccination passport, now posed to the Ministry of Transport (MOT). But let me reiterate some of the points that Senior Minister of State Janil has made.

We are exploring with several countries and regions, including Australia, on the mutual recognition of vaccination certificates. The certificates can be physical or digital, and we will need them to be secure, tamper-proof and verifiable.

However, vaccinations are only one aspect of pandemic control. Social distancing, contact tracing, quarantine and testing are also very important aspects which countries and regions have used to control the spread of the COVID-19 virus even as vaccines become available.

Singapore will continue – together with the Ministry of Health (MOH), MOT and other agencies – to holistically evaluate the COVID-19 situation in various countries and regions, and explore the possibility of restoring air travel when it is safe to do so. And we have been proactively doing so, given the importance of our global connections.

Mr Ang Wei Neng (West Coast): Speaker, I thank the Minister for the comprehensive reply. I have two supplementary questions. One, how would the recent announcement by the Hong Kong government to bar Singapore Airlines (SIA) from flying to Hong Kong for two weeks, affect the negotiation or the preparation of the travel bubble between Hong Kong and Singapore. And two, will the Minister reveal which are the countries we are negotiating with and preparing for travel bubble over the next few months?

Mr Ong Ye Kung: Mr Speaker, in short, the recent suspension of SIA flights to Hong Kong does not affect the talks to establish or restore the air traffic bubble that did not get to start. The reason is this. Hong Kong's civil aviation authorities set in place very transparent criteria for airlines. Once they breach the criteria, they get suspended for 14 days. So, they have suspended 23 times before this latest incident, involving SIA. The suspension came about because of technical reasons. One of the criteria was breached, which is that SIA had a transit passenger, not from Singapore, tested negative at pre-departure, but tested positive at post-arrival. So, maybe an old case with intermittent shedding.

And at the same time, I believe there were a few passengers who tested negative but carrying certificates from labs that are not ISO-certified. The Hong Kong civil aviation authorities enforce the criteria very strictly. So, it triggered the suspension.

Any travel bubble will not carry transit passengers. The travel bubble operates on the basis that the flights travelling within the bubble carries only what we call Origin Destination passengers. So, transit passengers are outside of the bubble. We continue to want to work with Hong Kong to restore this travel bubble.

As for how many countries we are speaking to, there are many. But let me explain. I actually do not quite like the term "vaccination passports". It gives you the impression like we carry a passport and we can go anywhere. It does not work like that. I think what happens is every healthcare authority, after vaccination, issues a vaccination certificate that has to be verifiable, tamper-proof. And then, we talk to other regions and authorities to mutually recognise our certificates.

That is the part where we are talking to many partners because it is good to mutually recognise our certificates. In Singapore, we have a very strong certification system run by MOH – verifiable, notarised.

And after you mutually recognise the certificates, then you ask yourself, "So what?" Are you therefore – which is a question that Ms Foo Mee Har asked – subject to shorter quarantine, fewer tests? These are things that we have to discuss. I think the first criterion in such discussions would be, how safe is this region? If a place is safe, such as Brunei, New Zealand, Australia, even before there were vaccines, we already opened our borders to them. So, that is the first and foremost criterion. Is the place safe? And if it is moderately safe, then we can consider relaxing restrictions for vaccinated travellers.

From time to time, you will see public statements being made, but actually behind the scenes, a lot of work is going on. When there are significant progress and significant things to announce, we will do so and inform the public.