H.K. Announces Most Stringent Quarantine Rules for U.S. Visitors

(Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong will implement what the city calls its most stringent quarantine and testing requirements for inbound travelers from the U.S. after an imported omicron case was detected from there.

Hong Kong residents who have stayed in the U.S. within 21 days of arrival will be required to undergo compulsory quarantine at the Penny’s Bay center for the first week, according to a statement Friday night which confirmed a report in the South China Morning Post. They would then be transferred by designated transport to serve their remaining 14 days of compulsory quarantine at designated hotels the travelers had already reserved. U.S. arrivals were already subject to three weeks of quarantine, all of it served in hotels.

The change, which will apply to those arriving starting 12 a.m. Monday, follows a visitor arriving from the U.S. testing positive under the “test-and-hold” arrangement at Hong Kong’s airport, the statement. Arrivals from 12 African countries already have to spend their first week at Penny’s Bay. Everyone there is tested daily for Covid-19.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong added Cuba, Kuwait and Liechtenstein to the its Group A list as 12 a.m. Monday. That means such arrivals will need to do 21 days of hotel quarantine. They joined more than 30 countries into its high-risk category the past two weeks due to omicron, a Covid-19 variant first reported in South Africa on Nov. 24. Only Hong Kong residents are allowed to travel from the high-risk places, with visitors banned.

The moves underscore a knee-jerk approach toward dealing with the virus that’s coming under growing criticism and out of sync with global trends. They signal the eagerness of the local government to align itself with China’s strict Covid-zero policies in hopes of reopening the mainland border, the city’s main economic lifeline. 

Hong Kong’s 21-day quarantine policy is even more aggressive than what’s practiced in some areas in China; researchers associated with the Guangdong Provincial Centre for Diseases Control and Prevention said in a study on Covid data prior to omicron that isolation mandates longer than 14 days are likely “an over-reaction” to the threat. 

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