HONG KONG, 28 April 2022: Travellers who are non-residents of Hong Kong will be able to visit Hong Kong when the government eases entry rules starting 1 May.
The move also includes relaxing route-specific flight suspension rules to allow airlines to resume services after a two-year pause with some of the region’s strictest limitations on travel to Hong Kong.
Hong Kong said it was relaxing rules in response to the latest development indicating Covid-19 is approaching an epidemic. It also considered the recent volume of inbound passenger flow, the number of imported cases, the city’s capacity to tackle the local epidemic, and overall socio-economic needs.
The government’s Inter-departmental Steering Committee & Command Centre pointed out that there has been an increase in the daily number of inbound travellers since the lifting of the place-specific flight suspension for nine overseas destinations on 1 April.
The daily average number of arrivals rose from fewer than 300 between January and March to about 1,200 since April. At the same time, the proportion of imported cases dropped from 3% in the January-March period to about 1% since April.
From 1 May, non-Hong Kong residents who have stayed in overseas places in the past 14 days will be allowed to enter Hong Kong and be subject to the same boarding, quarantine and testing arrangements as Hong Kong residents.
They must comply with all stringent inbound testing and quarantine requirements, including being fully vaccinated, undergoing a pre-departure nucleic acid test with a negative result and the booking designated quarantine hotels (DQHs).
Upon arrival, they will be subject to the test-and-hold arrangement at the airport and then transferred to DQHs by designated transport to undergo compulsory quarantine and multiple testings.
Meanwhile, the triggering thresholds for the route-specific flight suspension mechanism will also be adjusted with effect from May. If there are five or more passengers, or 5% or more of the passengers onboard, test positive for Covid-19 upon arrival (whichever is higher), the airline’s flights on that specific route are banned for five days.
The five-day landing ban will also apply to a passenger flight that has three or more passengers on board who test positive for the virus upon arrival and at least one who fails to comply with the requirements specified under the Prevention & Control of Disease (Regulation of Cross-boundary Conveyances & Travellers) Regulation.
