On September 23, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region announced an array of facilitation measures, including lifting its COVID-19 hotel quarantine policy for all arrivals from Sept 26 and replacing the nucleic acid test requirement for travelers boarding planes leaving for Hong Kong with rapid antigen tests, in a bid to revive the economy and better connect to the world.
Starting on September 26, overseas and Taiwan visitors will only undergo a three-day medical surveillance at home or at the hotel upon their arrival in Hong Kong. They will be allowed to go to work or school but will not be allowed to enter bars or restaurants for the period, until they get a negative nucleic acid test result on the last day of the medical surveillance. The required pre-flight nucleic acid testing for inbound visitors will also be replaced by rapid antigen tests.
In addition, unvaccinated overseas Hong Kong residents will be allowed to take flights to Hong Kong, while the Come2hk and Return2hk programs will be expanded to the entire Chinese mainland and Macao Special Administrative Region with no quotas.
Under the new arrangement, after completing the three-day medical surveillance, visitors will conduct self-monitoring from the fourth to seventh days, and nucleic acid tests will be performed on the day of their arrival and the second, fourth and sixth days.