Coronavirus: Hong Kong to cut 14-day flight suspension rule to 7, convert 13 isolation hotels back into quarantine facilities for travellers
- Trigger mechanism for ban to be maintained at three positive cases on same flight
- Another condition involving four cases on same route in a week will be scrapped
Hong Kong will reduce a 14-day suspension for flights carrying in passengers infected with Covid-19 to a week with the trigger for this ban kept at three cases, a move the city’s leader has justified as striking a balance between contagion risks and public tolerance without straining the healthcare system.
Authorities will also convert 13 hotels previously designated as isolation facilities for coronavirus patients or close contacts into quarantine premises for arrivals.
At her daily press briefing on Sunday, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor dismissed calling changes in the suspension mechanism a “relaxation”, adding that prevention of imported infections was still “a fundamental pillar” to the city’s anti-epidemic policy.
“The government considered it timely and necessary … to lift the ban in respect of these nine countries but it doesn’t mean that we will loosen all the necessary anti-epidemic controls as far as importation of cases is concerned,” she said, referring to another measure that will also take effect from April 1.
“What we announced last night [on the flight suspension changes] could be described as a streamlining of existing arrangements,” Lam added.
In a late Saturday night statement, the Food and Health Bureau had said airlines must strictly enforce all boarding requirements in place.
Starting from April 1, if a flight is found to have three or more passengers who test positive for Covid-19 upon arrival, the airline will be banned from operating that route into Hong Kong for seven days.