Congen says HK plans to lift ban on vaccinated travelers

By Daisy CL Mandap

Under the plan, only vaccinated travelers from the Philippines will be allowed entry to HK

Nearly three months since the Philippines was included in the list of “extremely high-risk places” for Covid-19 from where no passengers would be allowed to fly into Hong Kong, there is finally light at the end of the tunnel.

At least, for those who have completed their vaccine jabs.

Consul General Raly Tejada has revealed that Hong Kong plans to open its border for vaccinated residents and workers from all countries affected by its flight ban, although the details have yet to be finalized and no date has been fixed.

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That should include thousands of people in the Philippines who have been itching to come here since Hong Kong imposed a ban on all passenger flights from the country starting April 20 this year.

ConGen Tejada made the disclosure in reply to a query from The SUN on whether his long-standing plan to discuss the flight ban with Hong Kong officials through their technical working group consultations had pushed through.

Congen said the return of Filipino residents and workers to Hong Kong from the Philippines was among the items discussed in the TWG meeting held last week.

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“We asked them to reexamine out classification as A1, with the view to removing us from the extremely high-risk category,” he said.

“We also asked them to allow our residents and workers to come back given their need to work as well as the demand for their services.”

In response, the Hong Kong officials said they recognized the importance of the issue and agreed that residents and workers need to come back.

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“They added that Hong Kong initially plans to open the border for vaccinated residents and workers from all countries under the ban,” said Congen. However, they have not yet finalized the details of the scheme.

Congen Tejada had long wanted to ask for the lifting of the ban on the Philippines

If the plan does go ahead, those who will qualify to enter Hong Kong are Filipino residents or those with employment or student visas who have completed two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine at least 14 days before their scheduled departure.

Other requirements, including a negative test result prior to boarding and upon arrival, as well as the duration of the quarantine period, should be among those that will have to be determined by Hong Kong authorities.

Apart from the Philippines, those in the A1 or extremely high-risk category are India, Pakistan, Nepal, South Africa, Brazil, Indonesia and United Kingdom.

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The last two were added only recently - Indonesia on Jun 25 and the UK on Jul 1 -  after a number of their travelers tested positive on arrival for the highly infectious L452R strain of the coronavirus.

Under the strictest travel restriction currently enforced, anyone who had stayed in any of these countries for at least two hours within 21 days prior to their intended departure date, will not be allowed to board a flight to Hong Kong.

If they get relegated to the second highest category, which is A2 for “very high-risk” places, travelers will have to present a negative result for a PCR-based nucleic acid test prior to boarding and quarantine for 21 days, whether or not they are vaccinated.

In addition, they will have to get tested on arrival, four times during quarantine,and on the 26^th day after arrival at any community testing centre.

The only country in this category now is Ireland.

For more information on Hong Kong's boarding and quarantine restrictions, visit: https://www.coronavirus.gov.hk/eng/inbound-travel.html#quarantinemeasures2