‘No quarantine for returnees’

Lam: 14-day isolation not needed for HK residents from mainland

HONG KONG: Starting next month, Hong Kong residents on the mainland will be allowed to return home without the need to undergo a mandated 14-day quarantine, chief executive Carrie Lam announced.

Limited returnee quotas will be offered at the beginning of the scheme’s launch as currently only two land checkpoints at Shenzhen Bay and Hong Kong Zhuhai Macao Bridge are in operation, she told reporters before an Executive Council meeting yesterday.

Noting that Hong Kong’s Covid-19 testing capacity was unlikely to be universally utilised in the short term, the government planned to conduct regular testing for targeted groups.

As such, four long-term Covid-19 testing centres will be established in Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, New Territories West, and New Territories East, Lam said.

While taking care of regular government testing, the centres will also issue health certificates to satisfy travel requirements in the future, she said.

She added that the centres would also help make Covid-19 testing more affordable.

Lam said starting this week, Hong Kong’s airport authority will trial a rapid Covid-19 testing mechanism for arriving visitors.

Currently, passengers have to wait at the airport for eight to ten hours for results, or even overnight at a hotel, Lam said.

Lam assured that rapid testing will in no way compromise the quality and all pandemic-control standards will be met.

In an effort to bring down imported cases of infection, Lam said the government is considering to put Spain and Italy on a list of high-risk countries. Currently, 14 countries are on the list.

Lam also said that a planned travel bubble with Singapore will be set up in November.

Capability to spare: Lam noted that Hong Kong’s testing capacity was not likely to be fully used in the short term, allowing for targeted group testing to be done on the main island, Kowloon, and East as well as West New Territories. — AP