Hong Kong announced today that it will be lifting its ban on flights from nine countries beginning April 1, as part of a few other restrictions that will be relaxed.
Experts and government officials said that the worst of the latest spike, driven by the quickly transmissible Covid variant Omicron, may have finally passed, and therefore some restrictions can be lifted.
The leader of Hong Kong, Carrie Lam, said that vaccinated residents will now only have to quarantine for a week, which is down from two weeks, after arriving back from overseas.
Hong Kong has had one of the strictest isolation requirements for travelers in the world. It discouraged many people from returning to the territory, which is home to about 7.4 million people.
Carrie Lam also suspended plans to have every person in Hong Kong undergo PCR testing, and moved up a deadline for people to receive booster shots. She said that the extra dose must be received by May 31, and will be required to enter public spaces, including supermarkets and shopping malls.
Hong Kong practically sealed itself off for most of the Covid pandemic. With strict quarantine requirements for travelers, many chose not to travel. At its strictest, travelers would have to quarantine for as long as three weeks in a hotel.
When Omicron began to spread, Hong Kong banned flights coming from the U.S., UK, Canada, Australia, France, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and the Philippines, in an effort to keep Covid at zero. These nine countries will once again be able to resume flights in April, but only vaccinated residents are eligible to return.
More than 5,000 people in Hong Kong died from Covid. Since January 2022, more than one million cases have been recorded. Researchers documenting and tracking the virus said that nearly half of the city has likely been infected by Covid.
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