I travelled through four regions of the world – here’s how differently they dealt with Covid restrictions

Over the past six months, Andrea Lo flew from Hong Kong to Barbados, via London and New York and back again via a cobweb of travel restrictions. Here’s what she found

Hong Kong seems to have a ‘guilty until proven innocent’ approach in quarantining travellers (Getty/iStock)

I’m writing this in isolation in a hotel room in Hong Kong. The city, which has closed its borders to non-residents, demands most people quarantine for 21 days in a designated hotel on arrival.

Because of these stringent rules, Hong Kong has seen a dramatic decrease in inbound and outbound travellers. But unlike the average Hongkonger, I’ve had the opportunity to travel through four regions of the world in the last six months: Asia, Europe, the Caribbean and America. It was eye-opening to see how each place has responded to pandemic travel.

At the end of 2020, I relocated from Hong Kong to Barbados. I’d applied for the Barbados Welcome Stamp, a 12-month digital nomad visa released by the Caribbean island last year. It allows remote workers from around the world to spend a year working from “paradise”.

I arrived in Barbados in December 2020 intending to stay a year. But then my plans changed, and I decided to move back to Hong Kong at the end of April, and had to travel across the world to get there.

Hong Kong, 2020

I booked to leave at the end of 2020 on a one-way ticket with Virgin Atlantic. The itinerary would first take me to London on an overnight layover, then on to Bridgetown, Barbados.

International travel for leisure hasn’t been a thing in Hong Kong since the city closed its borders to non-residents and implemented a compulsory quarantine to all inbound travellers in March 2020, and so getting a Covid test for travel was an alien concept.

Hong Kong airport looking empty (Andrea Lo)

Those going to Barbados must bring with them a negative PCR test taken three calendar days before arrival.

Most clinics I spoke to were only offering tests done by deep throat saliva samples. This was the method of testing accepted by entries into mainland China.

Given that there was hardly anyone flying out of Hong Kong, there was little information from fellow travellers.

London, December 2020

When I arrived in the UK, it hadn’t yet implemented rules for arrivals to enter with a negative Covid test: these were required from January 2021. I breezed through immigration at Heathrow, and then went to hail a taxi to an airport hotel.

I was really surprised to see the driver not wearing a mask. In Hong Kong, mask-wearing had been de rigueur since we first started to hear of a virus that was emerging in mainland China in early 2020 – weeks before it was officially given the name Covid-19 in February 2020, and certainly prior to the government mandating mask-wearing in public in July 2020.

London was in lockdown at the time, and I spent the entire day and night in my hotel room, emerging only to collect takeaways I’d ordered. Hotel staff were wearing masks, which was reassuring.

The following morning, I was back in Heathrow for the second leg of my journey to Barbados. If it weren’t for the fact that travellers donned masks, I wouldn’t have known we were in the middle of a pandemic: the airport was packed, and there was a long queue at my check-in counter.

Barbados, December 2020 to April 2021

The writer in Barbados, where she lived for four months (Andrea Lo)

Quarantine in Barbados felt like a formality.

When I arrived, quarantine for inbound travellers lasted around three days. We were to enter with a negative Covid test, referred to as the “first” test; get tested three days after the “first” test; and remain in the confines of our designated quarantine accommodation while we awaited results for our “second test”.

Note that regulations in Barbados have changed since my arrival. According to the latest protocol, inbound travellers can expect to be in quarantine for seven days. Fully vaccinated travellers will be quarantined while awaiting results to their Covid test taken on arrival – a period that’s around 24 to 48 hours.

I landed on a Monday, got my test on a Tuesday at a government facility, and was cleared to leave quarantine by Thursday evening. Friends who happened to be in town at the same time told me that they were able to spend less time in quarantine by getting tested with a private doctor, rather than at a government facility.

I was surprised to see staff delivering meals to me in person, and having me sign my bills. I assumed there would be zero contact. Some of them didn’t wear masks. I also know that some properties allowed quarantined guests to use some of the shared facilities inside the hotel, such as the pool.

Though that’s not to say Barbados doesn’t take quarantines seriously. In January 2021, Love Island star Zara Holland was arrested and appeared in court in Barbados after breaching quarantine rules.

But it’s also a good example of the cavalier attitude some tourists took, which is said to have contributed to a cluster of Covid cases springing up in Barbados following the Christmas and New Year period.

Barbados is very much dependent on tourism, and it suffered the consequences of visitors’ lax approach – with curfews and a stringent lockdown in the months that followed.

New York City, April 2021

I flew from Bridgetown to New York City on JetBlue, spent one night there, and then to Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific.

Hong Kong had banned anyone who’d been in the UK for more than two hours in the past 21 days from entering, and even though they had announced plans to lift this ban, the details were murky. Canada had implemented a Caribbean flight ban. Getting home via the US became my only option.

I had no idea whether I needed to quarantine on arrival in New York – the information I found seemed contradictory. By the time I’d confirmed my flights, I was seeing that I didn’t.

A negative Covid test is needed to enter, and the US accepts rapid antigen tests. I had a doctor come to my home to conduct it and the results were ready in under 10 minutes.

I was asked to show this test while checking in at Grantley Adams International Airport – but not on arrival at JFK.

Although New York City had been in a bad place this time last year, things now felt as “normal” as they could be.

Hong Kong, April 2021

Hong Kong has complicated demands for arrivals.

All travellers are to bring proof of a booking at one of the city’s designated quarantine hotels for either 14 or 21 days, depending on which risk group the Hong Kong government has categorised the country you’re travelling from as. Shortly after I entered quarantine, on 5 May, the government announced it would lower the quarantine period to seven days for fully vaccinated arrivals from certain countries, which today includes only Australia and New Zealand.

Some travellers – like me, who travelled via the US, which is currently deemed a high-risk country – must also bring with them a negative Covid PCR test conducted 72 hours prior to flight departure, plus certification of the lab that conducted the test. I did my Covid PCR test at a clinic at JFK.

All travellers, regardless of whether they brought with them a negative Covid PCR test, must get tested on arrival at Hong Kong International Airport and await their results in a designated area. It felt like school – albeit socially distanced – with everyone assigned a desk and chair to sit at. The entire process – from getting off the plane, meeting with a health official briefly to report my recent travel history, getting tested, waiting for results and collecting my luggage – took around four and a half hours. After that, we were taken to our quarantine hotels in coaches organised by the authorities.

Here, there seems to be a “guilty until proven innocent” approach in quarantining travellers. Once we are in quarantine, we are to have zero contact with other human beings, except for those who come and conduct swab tests on us on day seven, 12 and 19. (A change in rules since I began quarantine means there’s also a day three saliva test.) I am staying in a standard room of 22 square metres in a quarantine hotel that cost HK$10,500 (approximately £956) for 21 days, and the rate includes three meals a day.

The conclusion

As I look back on my experiences of the last six months and prepare to exit quarantine, it’s hard not to feel conflicted. I have no plans to travel again until the stringent rules in Hong Kong become lifted, although witnessing how other countries have managed to continue managing tourism under a pandemic makes me a little bitter. Will we ever find the right balance?