Hong Kong will ease quarantine for fully vaccinated inbound travellers and residents who are close contacts of people infected with Covid-19, loosening one of the world’s strictest policies amid efforts to encourage inoculation.
Fully vaccinated people coming from a handful of low-risk countries including Australia, New Zealand and Singapore will have their mandatory hotel quarantine shortened from 14 to seven days, health authorities said at a briefing on May 7.
They will be required to self-monitor for an additional week.
The changes, which were announced earlier, will take effect on May 12.
Inoculated people from high and medium risk origins will have their stays reduced from 21 days to two weeks plus an additional seven days of self monitoring.
Those coming from extremely high risk areas will still need to quarantine for three weeks, even if they’ve received their shots.
Quarantine will also be shortened from 14 to seven days for fully vaccinated residents found to be close contacts of people with Covid.
When the close cases involve new, more dangerous variants, they will be allowed to quarantine at home – rather than in a government facility.