“Considering public health factors … and balancing the expectation from members of the public as well as the various sectors of the community … the committee considers that there is room to suitably adjust relevant measures,” it said.

All arrivals at Hong Kong International Airport, including residents and visitors, will be required to take a rapid antigen test (RAT), in addition to the usual polymerase chain reaction (PCR) ones, it revealed. Those who test negative via RAT can take dedicated transport to undergo seven days of quarantine at designated hotels, while waiting for their PCR test result.

“This can shorten the waiting time at the airport and reduce passenger flows,” it said.

‘Allowing foreigners into Hong Kong poses little risk of reigniting Covid outbreak’

The bureau noted that of all infections recorded between January and March, only 3 per cent were imported, while the proportion fell to 1 per cent for cases logged since April 1, when a ban on flights from nine countries including Britain and the United States ended.

The proportion of imported cases dropped despite the number of daily arrivals jumping from 300 during the first three months of the year to about 1,200 since the start of April.

The developments came as health authorities reported 574 infections and 15 more deaths related to the virus, taking the city’s overall tally to 1,200,908 cases and 9,227 fatalities.

Hong Kong barred non-residents from most countries from entering in 2021 as Omicron variant began to spread around the world, and by this past January, the number of places on the “no-entry list” had ballooned to more than 160, although visitors who had stayed in mainland China, Macau or Taiwan were unaffected.

This past February, only 2,600 people arrived in the city for the purposes of travel, a far cry from the 5 million visitors recorded in the same month in 2019 before the pandemic hit.

The decision to scrap the entry ban was welcomed by a leading travel industry body operating under the Society of International Air Transport Association (IATA).

Tommy Tam Kwong-shun, chairman of the Society of IATA Passenger Agents, a coalition of the largest travel agents in Hong Kong, expected more than 100,000 visitors would arrive each month.

Tam said ending the ban would help the hard-hit tourism industry, but the city still had a ways to go compared to other places around the region, such as Thailand and Singapore, which had lifted their quarantine restrictions for fully vaccinated travellers.

Hong Kong’s flag carrier Cathay Pacific said the latest measures were a positive direction for strengthening connectivity to the aviation hub, and it would be working to resume more flights. According to Cathay’s website, the airline’s latest additional flights included three hauls to London, two to Sydney, one to Perth, four to Vancouver and five to Tokyo in April and May.

The government’s move came after Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily warned in a commentary on Thursday that Hongkongers should be cautious of a potential rebound of Covid-19 infections.

“Hong Kong’s epidemic situation is going in a good direction, but [we] can’t afford to be careless,” it wrote.

The commentary also said that enforcing a “dynamic-zero” infection strategy was a prerequisite for the city to resume quarantine-free travel with the mainland.

Singapore to drop all Covid-19 tests for fully vaccinated travellers

Former city leader Leung Chun-ying, now an elder statesman, urged the government to move faster in reopening the city, saying it was important to promote “Hong Kong and China stories” to other countries, as he noted that most of the financial hub’s major trade partners had already lifted quarantine restrictions.

Nightlife and entertainment magnate Allan Zeman, who lobbied the government to relax travel restrictions, called the end of the entry ban a “baby step forward”, and noted it would allow businesses to once again send executives to the global financial hub. But he urged authorities to ensure quarantine hotels were available to accept the flow of arrivals.

“It’s never too late. I think that it’s a good first step to let Hong Kong start to get a breath of fresh air,” he said.

He suggested the next step could be a further relaxation of the threshold for suspending incoming flights so the move only came when 10 per cent of passengers were infected, or shortening the seven-day quarantine so as to attract more travellers.

Online searches soar after Hong Kong says it will lift flight ban

When Hong Kong lifted the blanket ban on travel from nine countries on April 1, it also halved the compulsory hotel quarantine for returning residents to seven days. The route-specific suspension mechanism was also adjusted, cutting the length of the suspension from a fortnight to a week.

Suspension of a route is also triggered if three passengers on a flight test positive, up from the previous one, and at least one or more fail to show all the required documents related to their health condition and travel history.

Turkish Airlines, for instance, was barred from flying from Istanbul to Hong Kong for a week after three passengers on board an April 8 flight tested positive for the coronavirus.

More than 70 flight route bans have been imposed so far this year, with 11 affecting 10 airlines in the past week alone. Apart from Turkish Airlines, other carriers that were handed week-long suspensions included Qatar Airways, Cathay Pacific Airways, Emirates Airlines and Thai Airways.

Hong Kong travellers in a fix as airline routes face bans over Covid-19 passengers

Among the 25 suspensions implemented in April so far, 19 were triggered because at least three passengers on the same flight tested positive on arrival, while six routes were halted after at least one passenger tested positive and at least one other had failed to show all the required documents.

The IATA said the easing of the flight suspension mechanism was a step forward but much remained to be done.

“The issue is that airlines still face the possibility of a suspension for something outside of their control even though passengers have presented the necessary documents and test certificates,” spokesman Albert Tjoeng said.

Additional reporting by Kathleen Magramo, Elizabeth Cheung, Victor Ting, Ezra Cheung and Laura Westbrook