Hong Kong Starts Two-week Border Shutdown

Hong Kong implemented a virtual border shutdown on Wednesday, stopping entry to most foreigners and enforcing compulsory quarantine on everyone else flying in.

One of the last flights to arrive before the restrictions came into force was from Dubai which landed at 11.30pm on Tuesday, just half an hour before the new measures started. Some of the passengers on that flight had come from the UK.

One passenger, who gave his name as Daniele, said he had been panicking about the possibility that he would not make it into Hong Kong before midnight.

Another relieved passenger who beat the deadline, who gave her name as Sally, said she agreed with the Hong Kong government’s approach to ban non-residents from entering Hong Kong.

“I’m a Brit and in England it’s really bad, well Great Britain is really bad, and I actually think we’re safer here because the [SAR] government seems to have managed it much better than the British government.”

Not everyone was lucky though; one flight departing from Shanghai Pudong Airport missed the midnight deadline due to delays, and all the passengers on board are now required to undergo a 14-day quarantine.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced on Monday that the border will be closed to all non-residents for the next 14 days, apart from those who had been in the mainland, Macau or Taiwan in the previous two weeks, amid a surge of coronavirus cases involving people who had recently been overseas.

Under the stricter border measures, anyone arriving from Macau, Taiwan or the mainland must self-quarantine for 14 days, unless they had been overseas in the previous two weeks, in which case they will also be denied entry.

All incoming residents must also undergo a mandatory 14-day quarantine.