Coronavirus: Hong Kong to lift ban on residents stranded in Britain; quarantine rules to be eased for arrivals from Australia, New Zealand and Singapore
- Compulsory quarantine period for arrivals from three low-risk nations will be cut by seven days to 14
- Officials say they will also relaunch efforts to strike quarantine-free ‘travel-bubble’ deals with more than 10 countries and have already written to their counterparts in Japan, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam and Australia to start talks
Key points:
– Government urges Hongkongers to get vaccinated if they want to join potential travel-bubble arrangement with Singapore
– Officials have already written to Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam and New Zealand to resume talks on travel bubbles
– Non-residents from Australia, New Zealand and Singapore will be allowed to enter the city for the first time since entry ban on foreigners was introduced in March last year
– Compulsory quarantine period for arrivals from the three low-risk zones will be cut from 21 days to 14 with seven days of self-monitoring and a compulsory test on the 19th day
– Residents stranded in Britain will be allowed to return to Hong Kong from second half of April
– ‘Return2HK’ programme will be extended by allowing Hongkongers to return via air travel from anywhere in mainland China compared with just Guangdong and Macau previously