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The USA, the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia and 12 other countries are considered risky when entering Hong Kong.

Just two weeks after the Hong Kong announcement Streamlining of travel restrictions for people entering the SAR which initially offered hope for the resumption of business and leisure travel to the territory, the Hong Kong government announced on Monday (16. While Australia was previously classified as low-risk, it has moved to the medium-risk category.

The delta variant was named as the reason for the policy change.

“The global COVID-19 epidemic situation is seriously threatened by the Delta variant, with acute increases in the number of confirmed cases within a short period of time in many countries,” said a government spokesman said in a press release. “After examining a number of factors, the government decided to upgrade the risk grouping of 16 overseas locations to impose stricter boarding, quarantine and testing requirements for relevant inbound travelers to break the local barrier to COVID-19 imports maintain. “he continued.

The full list of countries in the Hong Kong High Risk Group, which will take effect on August 20, now includes:

  1. Brazil,
  2. India,
  3. Indonesia,
  4. Ireland,
  5. Nepal,
  6. Pakistan,
  7. The Phillipines,
  8. Russia,
  9. South Africa,
  10. United Kingdom,
  11. Bangladesh,
  12. Cambodia,
  13. France,
  14. Greece,
  15. Iran,
  16. Malaysia,
  17. The Netherlands,
  18. Spain,
  19. Sri Lanka,
  20. Switzerland,
  21. Tanzania,
  22. Thailand,
  23. Turkey,
  24. United Arab Emirates and
  25. United States of America.

Only Hong Kong residents from high-risk countries are allowed to enter the Special Administrative Region, where vaccinated residents must undergo a 21-day quarantine in a designated hotel. While unvaccinated residents who wish to return have to go through a 21-day washout period from Group B countries.

Meanwhile, experts from the Center for Health Protection recommended on Monday that quarantine rules be extended to 14 days for medium and low risk countries. The current regulation provides for returnees who have been vaccinated and tested positive for antibodies to shorten their stay to seven days.

Professor David Hui, chair of the Scientific Committee on Emerging and Zoonotic Diseases, stated that there is data to show that perhaps a 10-day quarantine would be enough as there is still a 2% risk.

“The government is unwilling to accept this 1-2% risk of cases entering the community,” he said. “That means that seven days of hotel quarantine would not be enough … Therefore, a 14-day hotel quarantine for the time being would make more sense.”