Hong Kong scraps quarantine for Macau, mainland arrivals

Travelers arriving in Hong Kong from China and Macau will no longer need to quarantine, Hong Kong’s top official said yesterday, easing curbs imposed after summer outbreaks of the coronavirus on the mainland.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced in a news conference that those who have not traveled to medium- or high-risk areas on the mainland or Macau may enter the city, with arrivals capped at 2,000 travelers per day starting from next Wednesday, September 15.
The strategy is Hong Kong’s Come2hk scheme that was launched mid-May as part of the measures designed “to gradually resume the cross-boundary flow of people between Hong Kong, Guangdong and Macau in an orderly manner,” as initially announced.
Travelers will still need a negative Covid-19 test prior to their arrival and must take several tests while in Hong Kong to ensure they are not infected.
Back in August, Hong Kong halted quarantine-free travel and imposed a mandatory quarantine period of either seven or 14 days, depending on the traveler’s vaccination status.
Thus, Lam said that the scheme had been put on hold because of the “fluctuating” pandemic situation in Hong Kong and on the mainland.
However, Hong Kong’s “zero-Covid” strategy has seen authorities impose strict border restrictions and ban flights from high-risk countries, in the hopes that an absence of local community spread would allow it to reopen borders with mainland China.
“We have safely passed the virus incubation period and can say that we have achieved zero infections,” Lam said.
With the Come2hk scheme, mainland and local residents will be able to enter the city without quarantine via the Shenzhen Bay port and via the Hong Kong-Macau-Zhuhai Bridge, capped at 1,000 visitors each port.
Lam also said that, according to the new mechanism, Hong Kong will also recognize vaccination records issued by several countries such as India, Malaysia, Pakistan and Thailand, after similar official documents released by the Philippines and Indonesia were previously accepted by the Hong Kong authorities.
Meanwhile, the top official also announced that the government will resume the Return2hk scheme on September 15 after it was suspended in early August.
On November 23, the HKSAR government implemented this scheme in a bid to ease travel restrictions for Hong Kong residents returning to the city from Guangdong Province and Macau by welcoming them back without a compulsory quarantine.
In Hong Kong, more than 7.88 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been administered since the launch of its vaccination drive on February 26 this year.
Yesterday, the city’s Center for Health Protection (CHP) reported six new imported cases of Covid-19, taking the total tally to 12,129.
According to the CHP, a total of 66 cases have been reported in the past 14 days and all of them were imported cases.

Quarantine facilities for HK’s domestic workers to open

The Hong Kong government is set to open the first and second phase of the Penny’s Bay quarantine facilities to incoming foreign domestic workers on September 20, as cited in a report issued by Hong Kong Free Press. Around 800 rooms will be provided with daily fees of nearly HKD500.
The Hong Kong Labour Department previously announced that foreign domestic workers will be “centrally quarantined” in specified hotels.
Domestic workers coming in from the Philippines and Indonesia are required to undergo a 21-day quarantine under special arrangements negotiated with the governments of the two countries.