Hong Kong says it will ban all passenger flights from the U.K. starting Thursday as it seeks to curb the spread of new variants of the coronavirus.
It said in a statement Monday that the U.K. has been classified as “extremely high risk.“
Under the classification, people who have stayed in the U.K. for more than two hours will be restricted from boarding passenger flights to Hong Kong.
The statement said the flight ban was issued because of the “recent rebound of the epidemic situation in the U.K. and the widespread delta variant virus strain there.”
It is the second time that the Hong Kong government has banned flights from the U.K., following a restriction imposed last December.
The U.K. flight ban comes as Hong Kong is looking to relax quarantine measures for most other countries, including the U.S. and Canada.
Several other countries, including the Philippines and Indonesia, also face flight bans to Hong Kong.
The Government announced yesterday (June 24) that the quarantine requirements for persons arriving from the United Kingdom (UK) will be tightened from June 28, while testing requirement for boarding flights from high-risk places will be adjusted from June 26.
Quarantine requirements for persons who have stayed in the UK
The Hong Kong Airport Authority has just released the following press release:
Planes parked at HKIA a year ago.
(HONG KONG, 26 May 2021, 2000hrs) – To support the Government’s vaccination promotion, Airport Authority Hong Kong (AA) announced today that 60 000 air tickets will be given away by lucky draw to Hong Kong residents and airport staff who receive COVID-19 vaccination.
Of the 60 000 air tickets to be distributed by lucky draw, 50 000 will be given to Hong Kong residents who have received COVID-19 vaccination before the end of September, while the remaining 10 000 tickets are for staff of Hong Kong International Airport who have been vaccinated before the same deadline.
Meanwhile, the AA will purchase another 1 000 air tickets for giving away via lucky draw to AA staff vaccinated before the end of September.
The air ticket lucky draw to promote vaccination is planned to complete by the end of September this year. Vaccinated persons should submit their applications before the deadline. Details are being discussed with the airlines and will be announced in due course.
Jack So, Chairman of the AA said, “We hope air traffic would recover as soon as possible. A higher vaccination rate is pivotal to the early recovery of aviation business. We took the lead by committing additional resources to encourage AA staff to receive the vaccines, hoping that other corporations and organisations in Hong Kong will also support the Government by providing different incentives to encourage their staff to receive the vaccination.”
Starting from 20 April this year, AA staff who receive COVID-19 vaccination can take a total of three days off including the days of receiving the first and second vaccine dose, and the day after the second dose.
According to a press release issued by the Department of Health’s Centre for Health Protection today, Singapore Airlines budget carrier Scoot will receive a ban of bringing passengers into Hong Kong from Friday the 16th of April and for 2 weeks.
Starting from April 14, the Government began implementing the tightened commercial passenger flight suspension mechanism to address the risk of importation of mutant strain of the virus from very high-risk places. The Government also announced the plan to shorten the quarantine period for fully vaccinated persons arriving from non-very high-risk overseas places on the basis of the “vaccine bubble”.
Emirates has posted the following to their website:
Flights to Hong Kong: As per the latest authority directive in Hong Kong, customers holding tickets on flight EK 384 with final destination to Hong Kong from 13‑26 April 2021, will not be accepted for travel at their point of origin. However customers traveling to Bangkok as the final destination will be accepted for travel. Affected customers should contact their travel agent or Emirates contact centre for rebooking options. Flights from Hong Kong: Customers booked to travel on flight EK 385 from Hong Kong during this period will be accepted for travel. Emirates regrets any inconvenience caused. To receive update notifications, customers are requested to ensure their contact details are correct by visiting Manage Your Booking.
Yesterday, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor announced the Hong Kong governments 3-step plan on lifting the restrictions on restaurants and bars in Hong Kong. The new measures are expected to come in force on April 29th, and then in stages after that.
Local authorities in Hong Kong has announced that Singapore Airlines will be banned from bringing passenger in to Hong Kong for 2 weeks until April 16th, 2021.
The ban was places after one passenger who arrived in Hong Kong on Singapore Airlines flight SQ882 on Wednesday was confirmed to be infected by COVID-19, while 3 other passengers failed to comply with the requirements specified under the Prevention and Control of Disease (Regulation of Cross-boundary Conveyances and Travellers) Regulation, according to a press release issued by the Department of Healts on Friday afternoon.
The Hong Kong government has released the latest list of approved quarantine hotels for everyone arriving in Hong Kong who has to undergo mandatory quarantine.
The list features 30 hotels, and there is only one new hotel this cycle, the ‘Jen by Shangri-La’, the remaining 29 hotels were all part of the 2nd cycle hotels also.
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