Exclusive | Hong Kong coronavirus: unvaccinated, locally based cargo flight crews can skip quarantine if flying from ‘low-risk’ countries
- New rules demand though that they remain segregated from local community while overseas; fully vaccinated aircrews, meanwhile, will be allowed to bypass isolation without that condition
- Crews from destinations deemed ‘very high risk’, including Britain and the Philippines, will not be exempted even if they have had two jabs
In a major relaxation for cargo carriers, the government has told airlines that unvaccinated pilots who have stayed in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Japan and Thailand can avoid quarantine if they remain segregated from the local community while overseas.
Fully vaccinated aircrew on cargo flights can skip quarantine on returning to Hong Kong without the segregation requirement, though crews who have been to countries deemed the most high risk will not be exempted. Eligible pilots will be considered fully protected 14 days after their second dose of vaccine.
The government said it was planning to classify Indonesia, the Philippines, India and others as “very high risk” alongside Britain and Brazil because of emerging Covid-19 variants.