Transport Minister of Singapore said on Friday it was “very likely” the city-state would not be able to meet the conditions required for starting travel bubble with Hong Kong due to Singapore seeing a rising cases of Covid-19 recent days.

The first of air travel bubble flight between Hong Kong and Singapore is scheduled for May 26. However, according to Singapore’s transport minister Ong Ye Kung, “the issue now is the situation in Singapore, when cases are going up.”

Meanwhile in Hong Kong, the Singaporean official noted that it was a “very safe region” currently, with the number of daily cases ranging between two and zero.

Singapore is home to two casino resorts: Resorts World Sentosa and Marina Bay Sands. A number of analysts has said that Singapore needs to receive a meaningful number of tourists overseas in order to see business thrive.

Mr Ong said that the city state’s authorities would monitor the local situation and “critically review” the start date of the intended travel bubble with Hong Kong, and would make a decision “early next week”.

Any air travel bubble that comes to fruition will require passengers to retain a negative test certificate for Covid-19 before borading. People from Hong Kong traveling to Singapore must also be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 before taking the flight.

The two had agreed last month to start on May 26 an air travel bubble between the two places. It is the second attempt. The first proposal had to be postponed to this year, after Hong Kong’s situation deteriorated.

Editing by Rachel Hu