Hong Kong bans travel from UK anew

UK will be identified as an “extremely high-risk” area, starting 1 July.

All passenger flights from the UK will be prohibited to enter Hong Kong, starting 1 July, after the government announced it will be specified as an “extremely high-risk” area.

The “extremely high-risk” specification will also restrict persons who have stayed in the UK for more than 2 hours from boarding passenger flights for Hong Kong.

The stricter specification followed reports that local infections in the UK have resurged. The Hong Kong government have also detected imported cases involving variant virus strains from the UK.

Hong Kong had banned flights from the UK, along with Ireland, at the end of last year, but lifted restrictions in April and May after the outbreak receded.

It also lowered the risk specification of the UK to “high-risk” last 4 June, but reclassified UK as a “very high-risk area, starting 28 June.

The Hong Kong government noted that the travel ban on Brazil, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines and South Africa will remain in place as the COVID-19 situation continues to be unstable.

"The Government will continue to closely monitor the epidemic situation of various places, the prevalence of new virus variants, vaccination progress, and changes in the volume of cross-boundary passenger traffic, and will adjust the boarding and compulsory quarantine requirements for persons arriving at Hong Kong from relevant places as the situation warrants," a spokesman said.