Hong Kong Tightens Inbound Control Measures; Adds Countries to Group A

(03 Dec 2021)  Hong Kong has specified Finland, Ghana, Korea, Norway and Saudi Arabia as Group A places, effective 5 December 2021.

As such, non-Hong Kong residents who have stayed in any of those countries within the previous 21 days will not be allowed to enter the city.

Hong Kong residents who have stayed in any of the countries within the past 21 days, will only be able to board a flight for Hong Kong if they have been fully vaccinated and hold a recognised vaccination record.

Hong Kong. Picture by Steven Howard of TravelNewsAsia.com

Residents must also undergo a compulsory quarantine in a designated quarantine hotel for 21 days upon arrival, with six tests to be conducted during that time, followed by compulsory testing in a community testing centre on the 26th day of arrival in Hong Kong.

The decision to expand the number of countries within Group A has been made after imported Omicron cases were detected in those countries.

Additionally, to further enhance the management of transit passengers and surveillance of the virus, from 8 December 2021, all travellers who board a flight from any overseas city - including Taiwan - for transit in Hong Kong are required to present at boarding proof of a negative COVID19 test result (polymerase chain reaction-based nucleic acid test) taken within 72 hours of the scheduled time of departure.

To minimise the chance of cross-infection with other travellers, the Hong Kong government has recommended Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) further tighten its arrangements for transit passengers during their stay in the airport.

Under the existing arrangement at HKIA, transit passengers who have to lay over at HKIA for more than 24 hours would be confined to guarded individual rooms in the Orange Zone of the airport restricted area while waiting for their connecting flights. Such passengers are then escorted directly to their flights once they are allowed to board.

 Flights to/from mainland China are exclusively handled in the Green Zone of HKIA while flights to/from places outside the mainland have been handled in the Orange Zone of the airport restricted area since 15 November 2021.

Airport operators have set up dedicated teams to serve the Orange and Green Zones, while the staff of the two teams are not allowed to mix during the workday.