HK extends quarantine rules for mainland arrivals till June 7

HONG KONG - Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee on Tuesday announced the extension to June 7 the 14-day mandatory quarantine of arrivals who are from or have been to the Chinese mainland, Macao and Taiwan in the past two weeks.

The arrangement, which has taken effective since Feb 8 to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, was due to expire on May 7.

The extended arrangement, however, will exempt cross-boundary students and their accompanied carers. Also exempted from quarantine are people involved in manufacturing operations, business activities, or professional services, whose traveling is considered to be in Hong Kong's interests or beneficial to its economic development.

Persons such as drivers of cross-boundary goods delivery vehicles, crew members of arriving passenger and cargo planes, and crew members of cargo ships and fishing boats, will remain exempted from the mandatory quarantine.

The detailed application procedures to seek exemption are still under discussion.

The announcement came after Hong Kong reported no new infection of the novel coronavirus pneumonia on Tuesday, the third day in a row, and the fifth time in the past nine days.

As of 4 pm Tuesday, the city's tally of novel coronavirus cases remained at 1,037, according to the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the Department of Health.

Chan said the mainland has flattened the curve on the COVID-19 epidemic, but Hong Kong needs to prevent the spread of a possible second round of infection caused by cross-boundary traffic and imported cases from overseas.

Noting that the pandemic outbreak in some overseas regions has remained severe, Chan warned residents to stay vigilance and observe social distancing rules.

If the epidemic is controlled well, the HKSAR government will announce whether to cancel the quarantine for arrivals from the mainland and anad Macao after discussion, Chan said.

The CHP also urged Hong Kong residents to avoid all non-essential travel outside Hong Kong.

With Xinhua inputs