1. Government maintains most of the social distancing measures

The Government will maintain most of the social distancing measures currently in place during the period from August 19 to September 1.

Taking into account the risk involved in the operation of catering business, especially the fact that customers within the premises are consuming food or drinks hence mask-off most of the time, the Government will tighten the testing requirement for staff of catering businesses which adopt Type B Mode of Operation with effect from August 26. The staff will be required to undergo more frequent testing, from the current requirement of testing once every 14 days to testing once every 7 days. Fully vaccinated staff will continue to be regarded as having complied with the testing requirement.

In addition, since one’s health condition may change from time to time, staff members of premises under Cap. 599F who are unfit for COVID-19 vaccination due to health reasons should consult medical advice regularly and provide updated medical certificate to the managers of relevant premises or their employers.

For details, refer to: https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202108/17/P2021081700802.htm

2. Border control measures to be tightened for persons arriving at Hong Kong

The boarding, quarantine and testing requirements for persons arriving from overseas will be tightened from 0.00am on August 20, in view of the developments of the global COVID-19 epidemic situation and the latest expert recommendations.

The vaccination record requirements will be tightened, where fully vaccinated persons can only have their quarantine period shortened upon presentation of recognised vaccination records, and the quarantine period can no longer be further reduced with positive serology antibody test result.

The Government has also decided to upgrade the risk grouping of 16 overseas places to impose more stringent boarding, quarantine and testing requirements:

(1) The following 15 overseas places will be upgraded from Group B specified places (medium-risk) to Group A specified places (high-risk): Bangladesh, Cambodia, France, Greece, Iran, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Spain, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the United States of America.

(2) Australia will be upgraded from Group C specified place (low-risk) to Group B specified place (medium-risk).

The Delta variant, with higher transmissibility, is rapidly spreading around the world, and that fully vaccinated persons with the Delta variant breakthrough infections can spread the virus to others. Nonetheless, vaccination can still effectively prevent infected persons from getting seriously ill or even death. Therefore, persons who are not yet vaccinated, especially senior citizens, chronic patients and other immunocompromised persons who are most likely to be affected by COVID-19, should get vaccinated as soon as possible for better self-protection before the fifth wave strikes in Hong Kong.

For details, refer to:

https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202108/17/P2021081700867.htm

https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202108/16/P2021081600483.htm

More information on COVID-19 vaccines

www.covidvaccine.gov.hk/en/

We would like to solicit your support to disseminate the information to your colleagues, work associates and/or business partners so that they could adopt proper preventive measures. Thank you very much for your support.

Department of Health