Hong Kong reopens to international visitors this weekend - with strings attached

Though entry rules remain convoluted, the business hub promised to ‘streamline the testing and quarantine procedures upon arrival’

Hong Kong’s Victoria Peak tram (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

On Sunday, Hong Kong will reopen its borders to international visitors for the first time in more than two years.

The Special Administrative Region, once a thrumming hub of international business, has been largely closed to non-residents since the early days of the pandemic.

On Friday, the Hong Kong government confirmed in a statement that fully vaccinated non-residents will be allowed in from midnight on 1 May, with eased quarantine and testing rules.

International arrivals from countries including the UK will have to book a quarantine hotel, take a PCR test within the 48 hours before departure to Hong Kong and take a rapid antigen test on arrival in its “Test and Hold” system - if it is negative, they will transfer to a quarantine hotel for a shortened seven-day period.

It is the first time non-residents will have been allowed into the country since 25 March 2020.

It is also relaxing rules slightly on its “flight ban policy”, which at the moment bans international flight routes for seven days if a total of three passengers from a flight on that route test positive for Covid on arrival.

From 1 May, this will be increased to five passengers testing positive, and resulting bans reduced to five days long.

The flight ban policy has made it tricky to plan trips to Hong Kong, with the risk of an airline’s route being suspended a looming reality.

More than 10 routes are currently suspended, meaning cancelled flights for the likes of Cathay Pacific, Emirates and Qatar Airways.

Earlier today, chief executive Carrie Lam said that Hong Kong will relax some social distancing measures in May unless a sudden surge in cases occurs.

“It is gratifying to know that after more than three months since the fifth wave of Covid-19 hit us, and hit us hard, in Hong Kong, we are on the path to resuming normal activities,” she said in a TV broadcast.

“As far as the social distancing measures are concerned, we will continue to press ahead with the three stages of relaxation that I announced on 21 March, unless there is a sudden surge in Covid-19 infection cases, but that looks quite unlikely based on our observations and the experts’ advice because of the high level of hybrid immunity that Hong Kong has achieved.

“We have effectively and successfully rolled out the first stage and I noticed that many Hong Kong people and many restaurant operators are very happy with this first stage of relaxation. The second stage is intended to take place about a month from the first phase, that is, maybe the second half of May.”

The region resumed international flights from nine countries including the UK, US and Australia on 1 April, with Friday’s government statement attributing the change of rules for non-residents to the success of this measure.

“Although there has been an increase in the daily number of inbound arrivals since 1 April due to the lifting of place-specific flight suspension for nine overseas places (from a daily average of fewer than 300 inbound arrivals from January to March, to a daily average of about 1,200 inbound arrivals since 1 April), the proportion of imported cases has actually decreased rather than increased (from about 3 per cent in January to March to about 1 per cent since 1 April),” said the government statement.