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Coronavirus pandemic
Hong KongTransport

Coronavirus: Hong Kong’s screening system for airport arrivals holds lessons for travel industry in post-pandemic world

  • City has one of the most comprehensive testing procedures for Covid-19 in place at converted expo site
  • Programme is being closely watched as the airline industry’s body prepares to hold a summit with health officials in the coming weeks

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People leave after being tested for the coronavirus at Asia-World Expo in Hong Kong. Photo: Winson Wong
Danny Lee
A requirement forcing all air passengers arriving at Hong Kong to be tested for the coronavirus will remain in place going forward, a leading city health official said, with experts predicting the practice will become standard at airports around the world as the aviation industry adapts to a new normal once the pandemic recedes.

The city’s government has turned the airport into its first line of defence in the battle against Covid-19.

It has banned non-residents and transit passengers, handed out tracking bracelets tied to a smartphone app and expanded a programme mandating all arrivals provide deep-throat saliva samples. People coming from mainland China, Macau and Taiwan are also refused entry if they have been to any other countries in the past two weeks.

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The aggressive strategy was aimed at containing a rising number coronavirus infections as residents returned from overseas. Although health authorities have repeatedly warned about a local resurgence of the pandemic, the city has seen the number of daily infections steadily drop this month, even falling into the single digits over the past few days. Nearly all recent cases have come from overseas.

The monitoring regime would stay in place at least for now, a health official said on Tuesday. “The test that Hong Kong has adopted, I believe it has to stay for a while,” said Dr Wong Ka-hing, controller of the city’s Centre for Health Protection. “I don’t think we can easily do away with the testing in the near future.”

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