Hong Kong will lift its entry ban on residents stranded in Britain and allow designated flights to bring them home in late April, while all travellers from Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, deemed low-risk countries, can soon enter the city for the first time in over a year.
The compulsory quarantine period for arrivals from the three low-risk nations – now including non-residents – would be cut by seven days to 14, authorities announced on Monday in a partial easing of strict border controls and social-distancing measures amid the city’s improving Covid-19 situation.
Officials said they would also relaunch efforts to strike quarantine-free “travel-bubble” deals with more than 10 countries, and had already written to their counterparts in Japan, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam and Australia to start talks.
The government will also look into expanding the “Return2HK” programme – which currently exempts quarantine only for residents returning from Guangdong and Macau if they test negative in the 72 hours before entry – to include all airports in mainland China.