- Airline routes no longer banned based on a set number of incoming passengers infected with Covid-19
- In a separate scheme, eight groups under new ‘care corridor’ measure will also be exempted from daily quota of 2,000 quarantine slots set aside for those crossing into Shenzhen
Passengers arrive at Hong Kong’s airport, which has one of the world’s strictest control measures. Photo: Yik Yeung-manHong Kong will put on hold its flight suspension mechanism from Thursday, with airlines no longer banned just because they have brought in a number of passengers infected with Covid-19.
The ban on individual flight routes will be cancelled with immediate effect due to “social cost and more precise anti-epidemic measures”, the government said in a press release on Thursday. Four routes which were prohibited are set to resume.
Incoming travellers will be required to take an additional nucleic acid test on day three of their arrival starting from Friday in view of the adjustment, it added.
“The decision is based on careful examination of relevant data, considering it is the peak season for returning overseas students,” a spokesman said. “The measure will reduce the impact on arrivals, especially for young people who are abroad so they can come home successfully to reunite with their families.”
The spokesman highlighted that imported cases accounted for less than 10 per cent of the daily tally recently. More importantly, he said, more than half of imports could be detected through polymerase chain reaction tests at the airport, and the rest uncovered in hotel quarantine.
The existing measures could already “minimise the risks of importing infections into the community”, he added.
The policy of a five-day flight ban if at least five passengers – or 5 per cent of travellers, whichever is higher – test positive for Covid-19 upon arrival in Hong Kong has led to many airlines staying away and to at least 100 flights being banned so far this year.
In May, the government slightly eased the flight suspension rule, revealing that if the mechanism was triggered for the first time within 10 days as a result of passengers failing to comply with boarding conditions, airlines would be fined HK$20,000 and receive a warning, instead of the route being halted.
Authorities on Wednesday night revealed a special corridor that would open up more quarantine hotel slots for some travellers entering Shenzhen from Hong Kong, with targeted groups not subject to an earlier quota.
Eight new groups, including mainland Chinese students from overseas who enter Shenzhen via Hong Kong, and the elderly aged 70 or above, are now allowed to cross the border through a “care corridor”, without affecting the daily quota of 2,000 quarantine units for Hongkongers crossing the border.
It is still unclear how many hotel rooms have been set aside for the new pathway.
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Mainland authorities also announced stepped-up efforts to refine the hotel booking system – such as a firewall limiting the frequency of clicks and number of users who log in with the same IP address – to deter scalpers who resell slots at a profit.
According to a source, Hong Kong’s new health minister Professor Lo Chung-mau is working with Shenzhen authorities on the latest arrangements.
“He is working step by step towards providing greater convenience for cross-border travel, even though quarantine-free travel cannot be immediately achieved,” the source said.
The other groups who can use the special corridor include children aged 14 or under without a guardian in Hong Kong; pregnant women and their companions; people with underlying or severe illnesses who are not suitable for centralised isolation; immediate family members of those who are in critical condition or who have died recently; people who need to attend court hearings and those who need to take important exams.
Mainland China last week announced the biggest change to entry rules since it closed its borders in March 2020, cutting quarantine time for overseas arrivals, including those from Hong Kong, from 10 days to seven at a government-run centre. Arrivals will also undergo three days of home isolation instead of the previous seven days.
Amid the high demand for isolation spaces among overseas arrivals – notably students returning for the summer holiday – mainland authorities have increased the daily quota of 1,300 quarantine hotel rooms in Shenzhen to 2,000.
Lo earlier expressed hope that more families and couples separated by the city’s border with the mainland could be reunited next month for the Chinese Valentine’s Day on August 4, provided the number of local Covid-19 infections could be reduced.
For overseas arrivals in Hong Kong, Lo is also said to be formulating options, including shortening the quarantine period, for John Lee Ka-chiu, the city’s leader, to consider.
Daily Covid-19 caseloads in Hong Kong have been on the rise, with health authorities on Wednesday reporting 2,815 infections, including 143 imported cases. One new virus-related death was recorded.
The city’s overall coronavirus tally stands at 1,258,840, with 9,406 related fatalities.
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The number of people a day who entered the mainland through the Shenzhen Bay control point over the past week ranged from 1,113 to 1,548, the Immigration Department said.
Legislator Bill Tang Ka-piu, of the Federation of Trade Unions, said setting up the corridor proved that mutual trust between the mainland and Hong Kong authorities existed. He said the mainland had always provided help to those with special needs, such as allowing people who were unsuitable for centralised isolation to quarantine at home.
“I would say this is a good sign … since mainland authorities have maintained such measures despite no downward trend in the daily infections in Hong Kong,” he said.