Hong Kong to further tighten border control measures

This will take effect on 9 August.

The Hong Kong government will be tightening its border control measures for overseas inbound travellers, under its “Vaccine Bubble” arrangement, starting 9 August.

The “anti-epidemic barrier” is intended to maintain the “zero local cases” that it has achieved as it recorded zero COVID-19 cases locally for 56 consecutive days.

“Under the new measures, the government will adopt a risk-based approach and re-categorise overseas places into high-risk, medium-risk, and low-risk groups taking into account a basket of factors,” a spokesman for the Food and Health Bureau said.

These factors include local socio-economic and public health considerations, such as epidemic situation, testing rate, vaccination rate, volume of travellers, and actual imported cases.

In addition, boarding, quarantine, and testing requirements will be implemented based on risk levels.

Only fully vaccinated Hong Kong residents are allowed to board flights for Hong Kong from high-risk places.

For medium-risk places, only Hong Kong residents and fully vaccinated non-Hong Kong residents are allowed to board flights for Hong Kong.

All inbound travellers are required to comply with stringent quarantine measures and repeated testing.     

The government will also strengthen infection control measures for staff of airports, designated quarantine hotels, and designated transport to hotels arranged by the government.

"The fifth wave of the epidemic may approach anytime with the Delta mutant strain threatening,” the spokesman said.

“According to the latest research, for high-risk groups such as elderly people and chronic disease patients, the risk of death or severe complications brought by COVID-19 infection is much higher than the side effects brought by receiving the vaccination.”

Read more here.