HK to allow non-residents entry after over two years of isolation

Easing of rules, including for airlines, partly due to data showing few imported infections

HONG KONG • Hong Kong will allow non-residents to enter the financial hub from May for the first time in more than two years, a small step in unwinding stringent coronavirus restrictions which have turned the city into one of the world’s most isolated places.

The city’s rules for airlines that carry infected Covid-19 patients will also be eased slightly, the government said in a statement yesterday, with the threshold for suspending incoming flights rising to five infected passengers from three currently.

A ban on individual airline routes will be shortened to five days from seven. Foreign travellers will be subject to the same procedure as residents, the government said, according to a Reuters report.

Hong Kong’s Food and Health Bureau said the decision to reopen to tourists came in the wake of a review by a government steering committee, the South China Morning Post reported.