Coronavirus: Hong Kong imposes quarantine restrictions on 26 European countries in Schengen zone
- Travellers arriving from Schengen border-free travel region including Hong Kong residents will be required to self-quarantine for two weeks
- Move comes as city records six more confirmed cases, with 16-month-old infant among them
Hong Kong will dramatically expand quarantine restrictions to cover nearly all arrivals from Europe as it takes unprecedented action to stop the coronavirus being brought in from a continent that is fast becoming the new flashpoint of the pandemic after China.
The government issued a statement at night, confirming an earlier report by the Post, to announce a red travel alert for countries including France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Switzerland and Sweden “in view of the persistent and rapid increase in the number of Covid-19 cases in Europe”.
Anyone arriving from the Schengen region, which has a combined population of more than 420 million, will have to undergo a mandatory self-quarantine for 14 days, starting from next Tuesday.
Those arriving from the Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy and Veneto regions of Italy – the worst-hit country after China – face mandatory quarantine in government camps.