On April 15 the Hong Kong government announced its plan to reduce the quarantine period for fully vaccinated persons arriving from non-very high-risk overseas places.
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A government statement, however, also revealed that the exact grouping of places will be announced once the scheme is published in the gazette in late April or early May.
21-day Quarantine Still in Effect for New Arrivals from PH, Other ‘Very High-Risk’ Places
The announcement noted that travellers from the Philippines are not included in the scheme, as it has been placed under the A2 category for “very high-risk places,” together with India, Pakistan, and Indonesia, the Sun HK reported.
The higher level, classified as A1 or “extremely high risk” places, include the following countries as of the time of this writing: the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil – the three countries identified as the sources of the highly infectious coronavirus variants, collectively designated as N501Y.
That said, anyone who has stayed in the aforementioned countries for at least two hours in the past 21 days will not be allowed to board a flight to Hong Kong.
Meanwhile, in a separate statement, the Hong Kong government clarified that the A1 countries may be categorized to A2 by the first half of May, meaning flights from there would resume, subject to strict requirements including the 21-day quarantine and a negative Covid-19 test result.
In the same way, any A2 country like the Philippines could be moved to the A1 category for 14 days, meaning a total flight ban, if a cumulative number of at least 5 passengers from the country, regardless of airline taken, are found to have the variant on arrival in Hong Kong, within a 7-day period.
After this 14-day period, the downgraded country will revert to A2 status, meaning flights can resume, but still subject to strict boarding and quarantine requirements.
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