Hong Kong on Friday announced (read more here) that they would remove the mandatory quarantine for those entering the city from Monday (February 26, 2022), and incoming passengers could have a rapid antigen test within 24 hours of departure instead of a PCR-RT within 48 hours.
Passengers entering Hong Kong must fill out an electronic Health & Quarantine Information Declaration to disclose their vaccination status and the pre-departure PCR-RT or rapid antigen test results.
You can access Hong Kong’s page for incoming travelers here.
ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
Fully Vaccinated:
What Hong Kong consider fully vaccinated changes on September 30 and again on November 30, 2022. You must ensure that you are considered fully immunized if you are not a Hong Kong resident.
Pre-Departure Testing
Hong Kong now allows you to enter on rapid antigen test if done within 24 hours of departure instead of PCR-RT within 48 hours.
You should still consider doing the PCR-RT because you will be tested using that method on arrival and days 2, 4, and 6.
Due to differences in testing methods, the PCR-RT may come back as positive weeks or months after you had covid and when rapid antigen yields negative. For example, my PCR-RT tests in Paris and Helsinki in mid-December 2020 were positive when I had the covid in early November.
Health & Quarantine Information Declaration
Here is where there are issues at the moment. First, Hong Kong doesn’t require hotel quarantine for those who arrive from September 26, and second, you should disclose your pre-departure test result using the form.
Yet, if you try to fill out the declaration right now, it won’t proceed without quarantine hotel, AND you cannot disclose the test result.
Vaccine Pass
You need to use the Vaccine Pass/LeaveHomeSafe app when entering most facilities in Hong Kong. The code should be amber until 9 AM on the fourth day of your entry from Hong Kong (assuming that the on-arrival and day 2 tests are negative).
Conclusion
You may wonder how I came across this form issue, but after I wrote the piece about the quarantine removal, I went and issued a couple of tickets to Hong Kong, arriving on the 26th and 27th.
The only way I could complete the form was to include a “quarantine” hotel (I made a standard reservation for one of them), and the system split out a PINK code instead of a green one.
There is something weird with the vaccine pass as well. I validated the three doses of COVID vaccine I have had using the EU COVID certificates and was issued a blue code. I assume that this code switches to amber at some point.
I will report about my Hong Kong arrival, testing, and entry experience tomorrow unless I end up in Penny’s Bay. Stay Tuned
