HK halts route-specific flight suspension mechanism

Inbound travellers will undergo an additional nucleic acid test on their third day of arrival.

The government's route-specific flight suspension mechanism has been halted “until further notice.”
 
Routes currently suspended under the mechanism will also be allowed to resume service.
 
Following the mechanism’s final suspension, inbound travellers undergoing quarantine in designated quarantine hotels will now be required to undergo an additional nucleic acid test on the third day of arrival.
 
Citing data, the government said frequent nucleic acid testing for inbound travellers will be more effective in preventing the importation of COVID-19 cases than suspending flights.

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The government added that the flight suspension mechanism is “comparatively not very cost-effective in avoiding the importation of cases.”
 
“Since mid-June, the percentage of confirmed cases among travellers from overseas places or Taiwan hovered around 1% to 3%, representing a daily number of imported cases at just around a few dozen to below 200, and accounting for less than 10% of Hong Kong’s overall number of cases,” the government said.
 
“Data analysis shows that the vast majority of imported cases can be detected by nucleic acid tests under the test-and-hold arrangement at the airport and in designated quarantine hotels, and the risk posed by imported cases to the local epidemic situation under the stringent inbound control measures is relatively lower,” the government added.

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