889

"I am in agreement for those who are not residents."

Before the Government provides hotel rooms to ID card-holders flying in from the U.S., I'd expect it to provide hotel rooms for the McSleepers -- homeless people who normally spend the night at McDonalds -- who've now been forced out on the streets by the Government's restaurant closure rules.

Reply1984

【洛杉磯直擊】玩殘回港旅客 僅三人准上機 乘客斥「港府欺人太甚」https://hk.appledaily.com/internatio...JOS4BWKFSZK3E/

Apple Daily reported that only three passengers were allowed to board LAX-HKG flight on July 30. From this media report, it can tell that most of the passengers got disqualified by this requirement:

A letter in English or Chinese issued by the relevant authority of the government of the place in which the laboratory or healthcare institution is located certifying that the laboratory or healthcare institution is recognised or approved by the government.

In US, passengers need to provide CLIA (Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments) of this lab. It may take quite a few time and efforts to get a copy of CLIA of the lab.

I think the Hong Kong government sees the risk of providing fake test reports, especially for people from South/Southeast Asia, so they ask passengers to submit the proof letter issued by the local government. However, if passengers can get fake test reports, it may be also easy to get fake proof letters......

889

(Apple Daily is now subscription only.)

percysmith

Not one that plugins can’t overcome.

889

No! It'll freeze your machine!

At least that's what the Firefox 我要看苹果新闻 plug-in does on my Win7 machine. Just tried it again, and it still doesn't work: had to re-boot my computer.

percysmith

I was thinking of something less Apple Daily-specific like bypass-paywalls-firefox

garykung

Basically, the entire measure is stupid at best.

Having a negative result does not mean the people can't be infected. And the person needs to be quarantined anyway.

For those of you still pay tax to HKSAR Government, this is how your tax dollar at work.

triplefives

Hong Kong can't bill itself as being an international city and have such onerous (and ridiculous) regulations for flying into the city. If I had a family emergency in the US, it would be a huge pain to come back - and if taken to an extreme - it would make me question why I should bother coming back.

Nicc HK

At the moment the current restrictions are still planned to be in place until 18/09/2020, which is not that far off. I have a booking to UK/Spain, booked a long time ago for first week of September arriving back 10/09/2020, and am under no illusion that I will be travelling, though am curious if on 18/09/2020 the restrictions if lifted would also include those people who have not completed 14 days quarentine.

It is hard to see the government easing restrictions.

brunos

One could argue forever. No single measure is 100% proof to avoid local contamination. But the superposition of several measures (test before and after flying plus strict quaarantine) is most effective. Sad that there were these loopholes that led to a new wave.

I will be subject to these measures when I return to HK, and I accept them as I understand the motivation and effectiveness.

My guess, is that international travelers will have to submit systematically to testing before or/and after flying.in the coming years. That will be the new normal.
I assume that countries will progressively move in that direction with government-recognized testing centers. When the pandemic recedes, I assume that quarantine in HK would be reserved to specific situations, but tracing will be enforced. Just a guess.

Regarding Nicc HK guess, I would agree with him. Hard to see quarantine eased drastically by mid-September.

889

"At the moment the current restrictions are still planned to be in place until 18/09/2020."

No, they somewhat quietly moved the goalposts out a couple of weeks ago.

Quarantine for those arriving from China is now in place until September 7 (previously August 7).

Quarantine for those not arriving from China is now in place until December 31 (previously September 18).

Non-residents remain barred from Hong Kong indefinitely.

https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/...0072200750.htm

Reply1984

Forget about it. I don't think we can see this regulation eased before the mass takes vaccination. It is more likely that vaccination records for SARS-CoV2 will be as important as passport and visa when people travel to other countries. (IF we can have an effective vaccine)

Nicc HK

Thanks for posting this link. It was precisely for this reason I started the thread, information related to HK travel which can go under the radar.

I had been checking the main HK Government COVID website and definitely missed this. They have managed to hide it well, and certainly people I know who tend to be aware of these things did not know.

The HKSAR have the option to switch Category 2 countries to Category 1, but seems unlikely, so I guess any travel now to the end of the year means 14 days inside.

brunos

Thanks 889, I had missed it too.

It makes sense to put a remote date for extension like 31 December, and possibly lift the restriction earlier.

No one knows what will be the situation by say December. HK might be a bit less restrictive for people coming on business. But the current health trend in the region is worrying.

It's OT, but note that Singapore is adopting an electronic tag like Hong Kong and South Korea. SIngapore was imposing heavy penalties for violating quarantine, but it was very ressource-consuming to keep checking on everyone.

Nicc HK

Well it does not help when someone with the damned virus, and apparently knows it, visits a local restaurant and wet market as happened with a gentleman living in the next village from me.

This kind of selfish behaviour guarantees continuation of the restrictions until 31/12/2020.