The Hong Kong government will relax its quarantine requirement for overseas arrivals and those from Taiwan to “3+4” days from 12 August, meaning just three days in hotel quarantine and four more at home.
Taking a vastly different approach to Macau’s COVID-zero policy, Hong Kong’s eased measures will include the introduction of a “red and yellow code” system. Visitors who test negative at the time of quarantine will be given a yellow code. During this period, they will free to go out but are not allowed to enter restaurants, bars or other establishments. After completing their 4-day home quarantine and testing, a “blue code” will be reinstated and no more restrictions will be imposed.
The policy is applicable to arrivals from overseas and Taiwan while those from mainland China and Macau can use the “Come2hk” system which allows for a daily limit of 1,000 visitors without quarantine.
More than 4,500 people tested positive to COVID-19 in Hong Kong on Sunday, however the community is now learning to live with COVID and society is operating relatively normally, with commercial and industrial businesses such as concerts, restaurants and cinemas open despite the high number of infections.
At the same time, the Macau government maintains a very different position.
On Sunday, after a mainland employee who entered Zhuhai from Macau tested positive, the Macau government conducted large-scale tests on the person’s residence and workplace in Macau, designating the area in question as a “key area” and making it mandatory for all people in the area to complete nucleic acid tests (NAT) before the end of the day.
In addition, although the Macau government has relaxed the quarantine period for overseas arrivals to 7 days, the government has not yet opened up entry to foreign visitors except for Portuguese and specific people coming to Macau for work.
