Hong Kong will finally lift its travel ban on nine countries including the UK, its chief executive Carrie Lam has announced.
During a press conference, Ms Lam revealed that travellers from the UK, the US, Australia, Canada, France, India, Nepal, Pakistan and the Philippines will all be able to visit Hong Kong from 1 April.
Visitors from these nations will still have to quarantine - but the formerly strict isolation period of 14 days will be reduced to seven, if they test negative for Covid-19 on the sixth and seventh day.
Isolation will still take place in the city’s official quarantine hotels.
Very few people have been able to visit Hong Kong since the pandemic began in 2020.
Ms Lam cited a plateau in Covid case numbers as the reason for the easing of border rules, saying that a more long-term roadmap for Hong Kong’s full reopening would be revealed in due course.
“We have to listen more carefully to the experts, both locally and from the mainland,” said Ms Lam.
“For any longer-term public health strategy, we will have to take into account both factors: that is, maintaining Hong Kong’s accessibility to the mainland, and also ensuring her continued connectivity with the outside world.”
She also announced that the territory would abandon plans for a city-wide “mass testing” programme announced in February.
“The experts are of the opinion that it’s not appropriate for us to devote finite resources to the universal mass-testing,” she said.
“The SAR government will continue to monitor the situation. When the conditions are right, we will consider whether we will be implementing the compulsory universal testing.”
Hong Kong has had one of the world’s strictest pandemic border policies, largely due to aligning with China’s response, but since the emergence of the Omicron variant, cases in the territory have soared. On 2 March it recorded more than 55,000 new cases.
At present, no one who has visited the UK in the last 14 days may enter Hong Kong or transit through its airport, while residents of the Special Administrative Region are allowed to return to the territory but must show proof of full vaccination and quarantine for 14 days at a government-designated hotel.
Two weeks ago the territory’s flagship airline Cathay Pacific announced that it is operating at just 2 per cent of its normal passenger capacity.
A note sent by Cathay’s chief executive Augustus Tang on Wednesday and seen by Bloomberg News said that the airline will burn through between HK$1bn (£97m) and HK$1.5bn (£145m) every month “until conditions improve”. A Cathay representative verified the authenticity of the memo.
