Coronavirus: Hong Kong eases stance on quarantine-free travel to mainland China with a more targeted approach
- List of risk levels for mainland places published by National Health Commission will be used for government’s ‘Return2HK’ scheme
- Officials on Saturday declared all of neighbouring Guangdong province would be classified as medium risk only to change decision hours later
Questions were raised over the transparency and consistency of the risk-level classifications used for the government’s “Return2HK” scheme, which exempts Hongkongers from compulsory 14-day quarantine when returning from the mainland.
Under the new policy, the scheme will follow the risk levels that are in force on the mainland – which usually cover a smaller district, a village or even a single building, rather than the province- or municipality-wide designations that Hong Kong previously issued.
By drastically reducing the size of the mainland areas deemed higher risk, the move will avoid the need for many Return2HK travellers to undergo the compulsory quarantine they were facing under the old system.
In a statement issued late on Monday evening, a government spokesman said that from Tuesday, the list of risk levels for places on the mainland published by the National Health Commission would be adopted.
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The list of medium- or high-risk areas would be uploaded to the Return2HK scheme website, the spokesman said.