Australia seeks Singapore travel bubble, secures Covid drugs

Australia said it’s in talks over a quarantine-free travel bubble with Singapore for fully vaccinated visitors as it secured access to two additional Covid-19 treatments from Roche Holding AG and Pfizer Inc.

Expedited discussions are underway with Singapore over so-called green-lane travel, Health Minister Greg Hunt said Sunday in a televised briefing, adding the proposal is under "rapid development.” Australia is already planning to reintroduce a bubble for visitors from New Zealand’s South Island.

On virus medications, one agreement is with Roche is for 15,000 doses of the antibody-based therapy Ronapreve, with initial supplies available by the end of October, the government said in a statement. The other deal is for 500,000 treatment courses of Pfizer’s oral antiviral drug, which is set to be available next year subject to final clinical trials and approvals.