Coronavirus: hopes raised for EU to ease entry restrictions covering Hong Kong, with Brussels poised to update Covid-19 travel rules
- Brussels set to reveal changes on Friday to its Covid-19 travel curbs, potentially allowing Hong Kong travellers to head to the bloc for leisure, business purposes
- Health experts say allowing incoming travellers into Hong Kong is not realistic given the low vaccination rate locally, despite no new Covid-19 cases on Thursday
The European Union is set to update its Covid-19 travel restrictions covering arrivals from Hong Kong, with hopes rising in the city that Brussels will ease the curbs to allow leisure and business trips to the bloc.
But health experts have said Hong Kong cannot afford to open up to incoming travellers in return because of the city’s stubbornly low vaccination rate.
An EU office spokesman said a decision on the status of Hong Kong travellers was expected to be announced on Friday. Currently, only essential travel from Hong Kong to the EU is allowed.
A source familiar with Brussels policymaking said there was a high chance that travel rules would be relaxed for arrivals from Hong Kong, with the economically critical summer travel season fast approaching.
The city confirmed no new coronavirus cases on Thursday, but University of Hong Kong microbiologist Dr Ho Pak-leung said that the local vaccination rate still lagged behind countries in the EU. With Hong Kong still vulnerable to outbreaks, he said, it would be more difficult for the city to relax restrictions for incoming travellers.
“Those countries now have the right conditions for reopening travel, which is vaccination,” Ho told a radio show. “But Hong Kong’s immunisation rate is still far behind theirs and it could lead to the virus spreading in the community again.”
Tourism lawmaker Yiu Si-wing said that while whitelisting Hongkongers might help the European travel industry and the aviation sector, it was unlikely to be a huge draw for the city’s residents, as they would still have to pay for quarantine in a designated hotel upon their return under the current rules.