HK adds US, UAE and 13 other countries to ‘high risk’ category

By The SUN 

There are now 24 countries listed by HK as 'high risk', including the Phl

Hong Kong has announced that the quarantine restrictions for people arriving from 16 countries will be tightened starting Friday, Aug 20, because of “acute surges” in their Covid-19 tallies.

Fifteen of these places will be upgraded to “high risk” from “medium risk,” meaning only vaccinated residents  holding recognized vaccination record from there will be allowed into Hong Kong, and will have to quarantine for 21 days without exception.

The rules also apply to anyone who had been to any of the high risk countries for at least two hours prior to departing for Hong Kong. 

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Non-Hong Kong residents from these places will also not be allowed in anymore.

These are the United States , United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh, Cambodia, France, Greece, Iran, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Spain, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Tanzania, Thailand and Turkey. 

They raised to 24 the number of countries listed as high risk. The nine others already on the list also classified as category A are the Philippines, Indonesia, India, Nepal, Pakistan, South Africa, Brazil, Ireland and United Kingdom.

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All fully vaccinated residents from any of these countries should present the following before being allowed to board a flight to Hong Kong: 1) a recognized vaccination record; 2) a negative result for a PCR-based nucleic acid test  conducted within 72 hours before the scheduled departure time; and 3) confirmed reservation for 21 nights starting on the arrival day in a designated quarantine hotel.

All vaccinated arrivals from Australia will have to quarantine for 14 days

Meanwhile, Australia, which used to be in the “low-risk” category along with New Zealand, has been upgraded to “medium risk.”

This means that all vaccinated arrivals from Australia will now have to spend 14 days in a hotel for their quarantine. But this can be reduced to seven days if they can present a positive result for an antibody test conducted in Hong Kong before they left for overseas.

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Unvaccinated arrivals from any medium-risk country will need to spend 21 days in hotel quarantine.

The new restrictions were announced after a panel of health experts held an emergency meeting earlier Monday on the case of a foreign domestic worker who flew in from the US and was found to carry the L452R mutant strain after ending her 7-day quarantine.

A subsequent investigation showed that while in the US, the FDH had submitted a specimen sample to a local laboratory so she could obtain a positive result from an antibody test before flying into Hong Kong on Aug. 1.

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But according to government rules, the antibody test should have been carried out in Hong Kong before the traveler’s departure from abroad.

In announcing the stepped-up restrictions for the 16 specified places, the government said: “The Covid-19 epidemic situation is under serious threat from the Delta variant, with acute surges in the number of confirmed cases within a short period of time in many countries. Despite large-scale vaccination programs, many places are also experiencing resurgence of the virus, which poses enormous challenges to our local anti-epidemic efforts.”

Details on the relevant arrangements and the corresponding boarding and compulsory quarantine requirements for various places abroad can be found at www.coronavirus.gov.hk/eng/inbound-travel.html.

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