SIA is bringing the COVID-19 virus from China to Singapore

[LITTLEREDDOT]

First flight from S’pore to Beijing on Dec 30, more such flights on SIA in coming months​

A ticket for a round trip that leaves for Beijing on Dec 30 and returns to Singapore on Jan 10 costs $2,789. PHOTO: REUTERS

Nadine Chua

Dec 26, 2022

SINGAPORE – Travellers looking to visit Beijing can now do so via a Singapore Airlines flight on Friday, the first passenger flight from Singapore to the Chinese capital since the pandemic disrupted travel in 2020.
After close to three years, the national carrier is reinstating its Singapore-to-Beijing passenger service on Fridays, on a fortnightly basis.
This comes three months after SIA reinstated flights from Beijing to Singapore on Sept 27. These flights operate every Tuesday and Friday.
Flight services between Singapore and Beijing were suspended on March 28, 2020, at the height of the pandemic.
Checks by The Straits Times on Monday showed that an economy ticket from Singapore to Beijing this Friday with the return flight next Tuesday costs $4,053.
A ticket for a round trip that leaves for Beijing this Friday and returns to Singapore on Jan 10 costs $2,789.
SIA also operates flights to and from Shanghai on Mondays and Saturdays.

A check showed that a round-trip flight that departs for Shanghai this Saturday and returns to Singapore in the second week of January costs up to $5,791.
An SIA spokesman said the airline also has flights to and from Chongqing, Shenzhen, Chengdu and Xiamen, but has not resumed flight services to and from Guangzhou.
“We will continue to monitor the travel demand and work closely with local authorities to gradually resume passenger flight services between Singapore and mainland China where feasible. China is an important market for the SIA Group, and we will be ready when the Chinese government further opens up to international air travel,” said the spokesman.

Checks by The Straits Times on Monday (Dec 26) show that a round trip ticket from Singapore to Beijing costs $4,053. PHOTO: SCREENGRAB FROM SINGAPORE AIRLINES WEBSITE
In December, China did away with its zero-tolerance policy towards Covid-19, including abolishing its rules on snap lockdowns, lengthy quarantines and travel curbs.
This led to a tsunami of infections across China, made worse by the highly transmissible Omicron variant circulating in its cities.
On Sunday, China’s National Health Commission (NHC), which for the past three years has published daily Covid-19 case figures for the country, said it will no longer release such data.
The NHC’s halt to reporting daily infection numbers and deaths comes as concerns grow around the lack of vital information about China’s fight against Covid-19.
Independent analyst Brendan Sobie of Sobie Aviation said flights between China and Singapore are now at about 10 per cent of pre-Covid-19 levels.
“While this is an improvement compared with a few months ago when it was at just 3 per cent, we still have a long way to go,” he said.
“The green light to finally carry passengers from Singapore to Beijing is just one small step that follows other small steps, including the resumption of passenger flights from Beijing to Singapore in September and the opening-up of other China-Singapore routes,” he added, noting that flights to the nation’s capital are symbolically important.

Mr Mayur Patel, head of Asia at global travel data provider OAG Aviation, said the move to reinstate flights between both countries is an important strategic decision as China is an important trading partner for Singapore.
“I see it as baby steps and a measured approach to the broader reopening that China is working on. Some flights between China and the rest of the world have been reinstated, so it is significant that Singapore makes a move to ensure that its connectivity with China is restored,” he said.
Mr Jeremiah Wong, senior marketing communications manager at Chan Brothers Travel, said the travel agency has received inquiries from keen travellers asking when China will be open for tourism.
“But since China still is not open for leisure travel, the new passenger flights will likely serve returning Chinese nationals or residents, and passengers travelling for official duties and business,” he said.
Mr Patel said: “Those booking flights from Singapore to China are probably those with family there and would want to see them after close to three years.”
He added: “Even if China opens up for tourists, I don’t think people will be rushing there any time soon, based on the current wave that’s happening.“
Transport economist Walter Theseira, an associate professor at Singapore University of Social Sciences, said the timeline for the recovery of travel is unpredictable as there are typically teething problems early on. These could include tourism infrastructure in China that needs to be re-established and travel companies there that may have gone out of business during the pandemic.
“But barring non-pandemic issues such as geopolitical tensions, I fully expect that China-Singapore people movements will return to their pre-pandemic state,” he said.

 

[syed putra]

If panadol can relieve the symptoms, its not really as dangerous as what it was Made up to be.

 

[Pinkieslut]

Good news Sinkies can gain more immunity Rubba Rubba with Tiongs.

 

[laksaboy]

So... not too different from incoming Wuhan flights back in early 2020.

Are you any surprised, coming from the people who were eager to be the first to re-import irradiated Fukushima rice?

 

[bushtucker]

Pre covid, a return air ticket costs $600+ only. KNN SIA.

 

[laksaboy]

Pre covid, a return air ticket costs $600+ only. KNN SIA.

No price is too high for those who are desperate enough to want to go to that shithole Beijing.

 

[borom]

Nothing surprising when people who claimed to serve are still paid the highest salary in the world and head of soverign fund's salary is so high until its a secret.
Basically the more money the better , everything else is secondary

 

[Rogue Trader]

Great news finally! Please restock geylang and ktvs!!

 

[batman1]

CCP lost control of covid-19. MOH do nothing. ICA do nothing.

 

[Pinkieslut]

Great news finally! Please restock geylang and ktvs!!

More integration, more immunity!

 

[eatshitndie]

xiok! xia xuay xi variant 6.9.

 

[oliverlee]

how many ways can a virus mutate? Unless this is a new virus, no one should treat the infection as though it were a fresh outbreak

 

[laksaboy]

Nothing surprising when people who claimed to serve are still paid the highest salary in the world and head of soverign fund's salary is so high until its a secret.
Basically the more money the better , everything else is secondary

It's not a mere matter of greed. Those PAP technocrats are genuinely evil... a bunch of moral reprobates.

Daft Sinkies, distracted by gluttony and the daily grind, never gave this much consideration.

 

[blackmondy]

Sinkies' lives are expendable. More dirty money from tiong cock is desirable.

 

[laksaboy]

Season's Greetings and Gong Xi Fa Cai from Beijing.

 

[ODACHEK]

Wah...so many dead bodies! Pfizer or Moderna?

 

[nightsafari]

how many ways can a virus mutate? Unless this is a new virus, no one should treat the infection as though it were a fresh outbreak

more ways than you can shake a stick at. a good example is the regular cold. It's the same virus for the longest time(I have no idea of it's origin, but I think it's pre-history), but we keep catching it because it mutates quickly and differently enough to re-infect us on an annual basis or more often. Covid-19 is of the same ilk.

 

[tobelightlight]

nobody ask are the dead ones vaccinated?

 

[SheRa]

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Jubilant Chinese plan trips abroad as inbound Covid-19 quarantine set to end​

China said from Jan 8 inbound travellers would no longer be required to quarantine upon arrival. PHOTO: REUTERS
UPDATED

Dec 27, 2022

BEIJING - People in China reacted with joy and rushed to book flights overseas on Tuesday after Beijing said it would scrap mandatory Covid-19 quarantine for overseas arrivals, ending almost three years of self-imposed isolation.
In a snap move late on Monday, China said that from Jan 8, inbound travellers would no longer be required to quarantine upon arrival, in a further unwinding of stringent Covid-19 controls that had torpedoed its economy and sparked nationwide protests.
On Tuesday, the country’s immigration authority said it would resume issuing visas for mainland residents to travel overseas from Jan 8.
Cases have surged nationwide as key pillars of the containment policy have fallen away, with authorities acknowledging the outbreak is “impossible” to track and doing away with much-maligned official case tallies.
Beijing also narrowed the criteria by which Covid-19 fatalities are counted last week, a move experts said would suppress the number of deaths attributable to the virus.
Still, Chinese social media users reacted with joy to the end of restrictions that have kept the country largely closed off to the outside world since March 2020.
One top-voted comment on the Weibo platform proclaimed: “It’s over...spring is coming.”
“Preparing for my trip abroad!” wrote another user of the Twitter-like site. A third wrote: “I hope the price of the return ticket doesn’t rise again!”
Online searches for flights abroad surged on the news, state media reported, with the travel platform Tongcheng seeing an 850 per cent jump in searches and a tenfold jump in inquiries about visas.
Rival platform Trip.com Group said the volume of searches for popular overseas destinations rose by 10 times year-on-year within half an hour of the announcement. Users were particularly keen on trips to Macau, Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand and South Korea.

Residents of Hong Kong also flooded the Internet to search for flights to key mainland cities.
Outbound searches for flights from Hong Kong to the mainland on Trip.com and Ctrip, the two sub-brands of Trip.com Group, jumped around 521 per cent late on Monday evening versus the same time a week ago on Dec 19.
The top five destinations were Shanghai, Beijing, Hangzhou, Chengdu, and Nanjing, with search traffic up 1,039 per cent for financial hub Shanghai, and 718 per cent for capital Beijing.
Searches for Hangzhou, Chengdu, and Nanjing rose 662 per cent, 399 per cent and 411 per cent, respectively.
“Travel from abroad to China can only go up,” Mr Mike Arnot, an airline industry commentator and spokesman for aviation analytics company Cirium, said. “Flights to China by the world’s major airlines are down more than 92 per cent in December compared to December 2019.”
Carriers including British Airways, United Airlines Holdings and Qantas Airways stopped flying to China entirely during the pandemic and it “will take some time to rebuild their schedules”, Mr Arnot said.
Those airlines that have restarted services to Hong Kong should benefit from higher load factors on their existing flights to the city, which is a major hub for connections to China, he added.
The announcement effectively brought the curtain down on a zero-Covid regime of mass testing, strict lockdowns and long quarantines that has roiled supply chains and buffeted business engagement with the world’s second-largest economy.
“The overwhelming view is just relief,” said Mr Tom Simpson, managing director for China at the China-Britain Business Council. “It brings an end to three years of very significant disruption.”
An uptick in international trade missions is now expected for next year, he told AFP, although the full resumption of business operations is likely to be “gradual” as airlines slowly bring more flights online and companies tweak their China strategies for 2023. Nonetheless, the announcement was “very, very welcome”, Mr Simpson said.
Still, not all receiving countries are reciprocating with similarly open borders.
Japan will require a negative Covid-19 test upon arrival for travellers from China due to the rapid spread of the virus in the country, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Tuesday.
Travellers from China who test positive will be required to quarantine for seven days, he told reporters, adding that the new border measures for China will go into effect from midnight on Dec 30. The government will also limit requests from airlines to increase flights to China, he said.
India is also making PCR tests mandatory for international passengers coming from China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Thailand.
Cases have surged nationwide following China’s easing, in an outbreak that the authorities have admitted is now impossible to track.
And in the face of mounting concerns that the country’s wave of infections is not being accurately reflected in official statistics, Beijing’s National Health Commission (NHC) on Saturday said it would no longer publish daily tallies of the number of cases.
That followed a decision last week to narrow the criteria by which Covid-19 fatalities were counted – a move that experts said would suppress the number of deaths attributable to the virus.
The winter surge comes ahead of two major public holidays in January - New Year’s Day and the Spring Festival. Millions of people are expected to travel to their hometowns to reunite with relatives for the Spring Festival, or the Chinese New Year.
Meanwhile, hospitals and crematoriums across the country have been overflowing with Covid-19 patients and victims, with studies estimating around one million people could die over the next few months.
China reported one new Covid-19 death in mainland for Dec 26, compared with no deaths a day earlier, the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday. The death toll was increased to 5,242.

Major cities are now grappling with shortages of medicine, while emergency medical facilities are strained by an influx of undervaccinated elderly patients.
Beijing has insisted throughout the wave of infections that the country is prepared to weather the storm – and urged people to take responsibility for their own health.
“We need the public to properly protect themselves, continue to cooperate with the implementation of relevant prevention and control measures,” Dr Liang Wannian, an epidemiologist and the head of an expert group at the NHC tasked with responding to the Covid-19 pandemic, told state news agency Xinhua.
“We need to shift the focus of our work from infection prevention and control to medical treatment.”
But that has also led to concerns about the quick return to normal life.
“Domestic infections are still rising,” one Weibo user wrote. “Isn’t it obviously trying to get everyone infected,” the person asked, referring indirectly to the government.
Another Internet user wrote about a neighbour who died and a rumour that coffins were in short supply. “This is the result of opening up,” the person wrote. “Why must we open up? Why can’t we consider the vulnerable groups first?” AFP, BLOOMBERG, REUTERS