Hong Kong’s Centre for Health Protection (CHP) has announced that it will reduce the length of hotel quarantine for travelers to 3 days, down from 7 days. In addition, travelers coming into Hong Kong must undergo 4 days of home medical surveillance and self-quarantine upon returning to Hong Kong before they are allowed to go back to work or school. After their 4 days of medical surveillance.

What you need to know


Travelers in Hong Kong are no longer required to serve hotel quarantine for seven days. The new rule takes effect Friday.
“The seven-day quarantine hotel arrangement will be changed to three days in a quarantine hotel, plus four days of home medical surveillance,” Dr. John Lee, Chief Executive Officer, said at a press conference Monday.
Once quarantine at the hotel is complete, those returning to the US can return home or find lodging at another hotel for the remainder of the required four-day watch. During this period, people will be allowed to leave their homes but not enter “places where there is active checking of vaccine passes,” Lee said in Cantonese.

That includes bars, pubs, gyms, beauty parlors, hospitals, nursing homes, and other specified places. People are not allowed to visit during surveillance.
“They cannot participate in any activities where masks are to be taken off,” Lee added. If a person with flu shows a negative result on a rapid antigen test, he or she can still go about daily life including using public transportation, going to work, and shopping at malls.

“We have to strike a balance between risk level as well as our economic activity. Where risks could be controlled, we want to preserve maximum movement of people and to maintain Hong Kong’s competitiveness,” Lee said.

After a biohazard called Covid spread rapidly, Hong Kong closed its borders in an attempt to isolate and control the epidemic. The strategy, while it managed to limit the spread of the infection, was hardly kind to the already frazzled citizens of the small city as most of the rest of the world eased restrictions.

Incoming Secretary for Health Lo Chung-mau said based on data trends, the 80% of patients contract an infection within three days.

“An additional four nights in a quarantine hotel — that means seven nights in a quarantine hotel — is not cost effective and it will also affect Hong Kong’s connection with the world,” he said at the same press conference.

Shares of Cathay Pacific Airlines Ltd. rose 2.36% in the wake of the announcement.