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Vacationers to and from Hong Kong are lastly starting to see the sunshine on the finish of the tunnel with the federal government suspending a controversial Covid-19 flight ban coverage beginning at the moment (July 7).
The so-called circuit breaker mechanism, which banned airways from flying a selected route for 5 days if a minimum of 5 passengers or 5 % of the entire variety of passengers on board, whichever is increased, have been discovered to be contaminated upon arrival, triggered main disruptions to many’s journey plans.
About 100 flights have been banned this 12 months as a result of mechanism.
In a press release launched on Thursday, a authorities spokesman stated it has suspended the mechanism till additional discover with speedy impact.
He famous that the variety of each day Covid-19 instances has risen to four-digit figures since mid-June.
Throughout the identical interval, the speed of an infection amongst these arriving in Hong Kong from abroad hovered between 1 and three %, which means fewer than 200 every day.
That accounts for fewer than 10 % of the entire variety of instances in Hong Kong, he added.
The spokesman additionally stated that you will need to word that greater than half of the imported instances could be discovered by way of a PCR testing association within the restricted space of Hong Kong’s airport instantly upon arrival. Solely those that get unfavourable take a look at outcomes are allowed to go away for quarantine.
Additional testing throughout quarantine additionally screens out the overwhelming majority of imported instances, making the danger of group an infection comparatively minimal, he added.
The spokesman additionally introduced that the federal government is stepping up Covid-19 testing for inbound vacationers by requiring them to endure an additional PCR take a look at on the third day after their arrival from tomorrow (July 8).
That is along with the present PCR checks they should do on the fifth, ninth and twelfth days following their arrival in Hong Kong, in addition to each day speedy antigen checks for 14 days. Additionally they should do a PCR take a look at inside 48 hours earlier than their flight’s departure.
“The brand new measures are determined by the federal government after a cautious assessment of related knowledge and keep in mind how it’s at the moment the height interval for college kids finding out abroad to return to Hong Kong,” stated the spokesman.
“The related measures will assist cut back the influence on folks arriving in Hong Kong, particularly permitting younger folks from different locations to return to Hong Kong to reunite with their households in the course of the summer season trip. It might additionally extra precisely and successfully block the move of imported instances into the group with the bottom attainable social value, whereas maximizing the advantages of pandemic management.”
Critics have stated that Hong Kong’s strict Covid-19 insurance policies threaten to undermine its standing as a world monetary hub.
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