Hong Kong Scraps COVID-19 Hotel Quarantine from 26 September 2022

As widely speculated, Hong Kong has just announced that it will end all mandatory hotel quarantine for arrivals from 26 September, Monday. This is a change from the current 3 days of hotel quarantine required for international tourists.

The pre-flight PCR test which has to be taken 48 hours before flying will also be replaced by just a Rapid Antigen Test (ART). However, travellers will still be subjected to a compulsory polymerase chain reaction (PCR) on arrival and have to self-monitor their health over the next 3 days under its “0+3” plan. During this period, travellers are also not allowed to visit F&B or nightlife premisses.

Current COVID-19 Quarantine Measures	COVID-19 Quarantine Measures After 26 Sep
- Negative PCR result before flight	- Negative ART result before flight
- 3-day hotel quarantine	- PCR test on arrival
- 4-day self monitoring after quarantine	- 3-day self monitoring (no visiting of restaurants and bars)
- ART test on 2nd day of arrival	- PCR test on day 2,4,6 of arrival
	- ART test every day for 7 days after arrival

The Hong Kong government has been under intense pressure to remove some of its stringent COVID-19 measures as the city has been losing its competitiveness by shutting itself off from the world due to China’s zero-COVID policy for the past two and a half years.

A day ago, International Air Transport Association (IATA) warned that the city has lost its position as a global aviation hub due to its tough pandemic-control policy. In the Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI), Singapore has overtaken Hong Kong as Asia’s top financial centre.

Hong Kong reports 5,387 new COVID-19 infections today with 156 imported ones, as well as 12 more related deaths. This brings the total number of COVID-19 cases in Hong Kong to 1,736,413 with 9,946 deaths.