Hong Kong imposes two-week ban on flights from Covid hot spots

Travellers from India, Pakistan, and the Philippines will be prohibited from entering the City.

The Hong Kong government has invoked a place-specific flight suspension mechanism for travellers coming from India, Pakistan, and the Philippines beginning 20 April, as these countries are ‘extremely high risk’ for the COVID-19 infection.

Under the place-specific flight suspension mechanism, if a total of five or more passengers amongst all flights from the same place, regardless of airline, were confirmed by arrival tests for COVID-19 with the N501Y mutant strain within a seven-day period, the government would invoke the regulation to prohibit all passenger flights from that place from landing in Hong Kong for 14 days, and the place would be specified as "extremely high-risk".

India, Pakistan, and the Philippines all had a seven-day cumulative number of relevant cases that reached the relevant criteria in the past 14 days, according to a government spokesperson.

“The government will continue to closely monitor the development of the global and local epidemic situation, and will further adjust the relevant inbound prevention and control measures as necessary,” the spokesperson said.