Coronavirus: ‘3+4’ – Hong Kong cuts hotel quarantine for overseas arrivals to 3 days plus 4 days of ‘home medical surveillance’, allowing trips to office and malls, starting August 12

Key points

• Travellers will be quarantined in designated hotels for three days starting from Friday, after which they can return home and spend four days under surveillance.

• Their activities will be restricted during the four-day surveillance period. Under a yellow or amber health code, they will be banned from entering high-risk places or joining mask-off activities.

• But they can still take public transport, go to work and shop at markets and malls, if their daily rapid antigen test results are negative.

• The health code will change colour to blue when travellers have completed the entire “3+4” arrangement.

• Scientific data has shown that PCR tests on the third day of quarantine for travellers can uncover most infections. The transmission risk is reduced to less than 1 per cent after that, similar to the community rate.

• Travellers who have booked a seven-day hotel quarantine do not need to make any changes. Hotels will issue refunds when the government policy comes into force, but this will take time.

• Hong Kong will continue making use of PCR tests to identify people with infection risks and to refine control measures.

• The city’s leader has said he is also working on reopening the border with mainland China, stressing that reconnecting with the world and the rest of the country are not contradictory goals.

Hong Kong is easing Covid-19 entry rules for international arrivals from Friday, requiring them to remain in a hotel for three days before undergoing four days of “home medical surveillance” that will allow limited movement into areas where vaccine pass checks are not mandatory.

The long-awaited cut from seven days of mandatory quarantine in a designated hotel was announced at the same time as the launch of a mainland China-style, two-colour health code, following a high-level meeting of top officials last Wednesday.

Current rules require travellers to spend a week in quarantine at a designated hotel of their choice.

Under the revised scheme, overseas travellers have to complete three days of quarantine in hotels, and serve the remainder of their isolation at home or also in a hotel. However, they will be allowed to leave their home or hotels in the last four days, but not to places that require the “Leave Home Safe” app residents use to show their vaccination status for entry to most public premises, such as restaurants and bars.

They are also banned from entering homes for the elderly and disabled persons, designated medical venues, as well as from joining any mask-off activities.

If travellers test negative daily through rapid kits during the four days, they can take public transport, attend work and go to shopping centres.

Unlike in some places in mainland China, which have a similar system, the code will not cover close contacts of Covid-19 patients, as officials had previously signalled. It will be linked with the existing “Leave Home Safe” app.