Hong Kong Loosening Quarantine Rules
The Hong Kong has announced that the quarantine requirements for persons arriving at Hong Kong who have received COVID-19 vaccination will be adjusted in phases.
Except for those who had stayed in extremely high-risk or very high-risk places (Group A1 and A2 specified places), fully vaccinated persons with a positive result of serology testing for antibodies will be subject to a further shortened compulsory quarantine period of seven days upon arrival.
Additionally, the restriction from entry to Hong Kong will also be relaxed for fully vaccinated non-Hong Kong residents who have not stayed in Group A1 or Group A2 specified places. The relevant persons are still subject to multiple nucleic acid tests after arrival to avoid missing any cases.
A spokesman for the Hong Kong government said that: “The local epidemic situation has become stable, and the vaccination rate is increasing steadily. Hong Kong is well equipped to allow persons arriving at Hong Kong who are fully vaccinated and possess positive serology antibody test results to be subject to a further shortened compulsory quarantine period of seven days and to allow non-Hong Kong residents to enter Hong Kong after fulfilling certain conditions, depending on the risk level of the places they have stayed. This will enable gradual and orderly resumption of flows of people with other places.”
And the spokesman added: “Hong Kong has been maintaining strict border control measures against importation of cases to control the epidemic situation. Meanwhile, as Hong Kong is an international metropolis, many of our citizens have genuine needs to travel around the world. There are also social and economic needs to maintain flows of people between Hong Kong and other places. The above arrangements adopted the recommendations of the experts and were supported with strong scientific grounds. It strikes a balance between the need for preventing the importation of cases and that for facilitating travelling. It is also in line with the international trend to take vaccination as a means of resuming normality of society.”
