Cathay Pacific staff members gather at the check in counters at Hong Kong International Airport on Aug 11, 2021.
(ISAAC LAWRENCE / AFP)

HONG KONG  – Hong Kong will shorten mandatory hotel quarantine for passenger flight crews to three days from seven, while cargo crews will be exempt, as the financial hub allows the entry of non-Hong Kong residents starting from May 1.

In a statement issued on Friday evening, a spokesman for the government it will adjust the testing and self-isolation requirements for locally based air crew in a bid to relieve “local airlines' manpower constraints.”

As for air crew members who will spend a short layover in Hong Kong and not enter the local community, they will be subject to a stringent closed-loop arrangement during their stay in the city

The spokesman noted that locally based passenger crew members are subject to a stringent closed-loop arrangement when they lay over in outports. They will be required to undergo self-isolation in a designated quarantine hotel until they obtain a negative result of a polymerase chain reaction-based nucleic acid test conducted on the third day following their return to Hong Kong.

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For locally based cargo crew, they will no longer be subject to self-isolation requirements upon their return to Hong Kong as they are subject to a stringent closed-loop arrangement when they lay over in outports and have no passengers to interact with throughout their flight duties, the spokesman said.

“However, these cargo crew members must undergo the test-and-hold arrangement at the airport upon arrival and obtain a negative result of a nucleic acid test before leaving.”

A worker sanitizes the entrance of a quarantine hotel in Hong Kong’s Central’s district on Feb 6, 2022. (BERTHA WANG / AFP)

Moreover, all locally based air crew members are subject to medical surveillance until the 14th day following their arrival, during which they are required to conduct repeated nucleic acid tests.

They also need to conduct daily RATs, avoid mask-off activities in public places, refrain from going to crowded places and mass gatherings, and keep a log of their activities until the seventh day following their arrival, the spokesman said.

Airlines will be held responsible for overseeing the activity logs of their air crew and conducting regular checks on the logs. If an airline is found not to be exercising due diligence over its air crew's compliance, the crew's designation status will be revoked.

Spokesman, HKSAR government

“In case of non-compliance, the designation status of relevant air crew members will be revoked.”

As for air crew members who will spend a short layover in Hong Kong and not enter the local community, they will be subject to a stringent closed-loop arrangement during their stay in the city.

“They must present a negative result of a pre-departure rapid antigen test, use the dedicated channel in the airport upon arrival and take point-to-point transport to an airport hotel, which is designated to receive air crew under the closed-loop arrangement only,” the spokesman said.

They are also required to self-isolate in the hotel rooms until they leave Hong Kong via point-to-point transport to the airport and through the dedicated channel there.

The spokesman said airlines should introduce robust mechanisms to ensure that their air crew members fully comply with the requirements during the medical surveillance period.

“Airlines will be held responsible for overseeing the activity logs of their air crew and conducting regular checks on the logs. If an airline is found not to be exercising due diligence over its air crew's compliance, the crew's designation status will be revoked.”

READ MORE: Hong Kong begins relaxing social distancing restrictions

Starting May 1, all air crew members deployed by local airlines for operating flights in and out of Hong Kong will have completed three doses of COVID-19 vaccines.

The government was also lifting an outbound travel alert on overseas countries from May, more than two years after it was first implemented in March 2020.

Non-residents will be allowed to enter the city for the first time in more than two years from May, the government announced on April 22.

The announcements came as the city’s daily COVID-19 infections have dropped to around 400 in the past week from a peak of more than 50,000 on March 9. The city logged 366 confirmed cases on Friday, bringing the infection tally in the fifth wave to 1,191,216.

Meanwhile, the government announced that nine hotels that were earlier used or reserved as community isolation facilities will be converted to designated quarantine hotels in anticipation of the increasing number of inbound travelers. That will provide around 4,000 additional rooms.

These hotels will begin services and accept room bookings from early May.

With Reuters' inputs