The Government today announced that as the global COVID-19 epidemic situation remains severe it will maintain the measure to restrict people who have stayed in the extremely high-risk specified places from boarding flights for Hong Kong as well as the 21-day compulsory quarantine requirement for people arriving in the city who have stayed in places outside China.

To facilitate the public's understanding of the boarding and compulsory quarantine requirements under the relevant regulations for people who have stayed in different places outside China, the Government has categorised the requirements for the relevant specified places into three groups.

For Group A extremely high-risk specified places, any person who has stayed in Brazil, Ireland, South Africa and the UK for more than two hours on the day of boarding or during the 21 days before that day are not allowed to board for Hong Kong.

Noting that the measures are very stringent and would inevitably affect the return journeys of a number of Hong Kong residents in those places, the Government said it is necessary to extend the relevant arrangement to protect the health of the overall community in Hong Kong by firmly guarding against the importation of the new virus variants.

For the very high-risk Group B specified places and the medium- to high-risk Group C specified places, all people arriving in Hong Kong, either via the airport or land boundary control points, who have stayed in places outside China on the day of arrival in the city or during the 21 days before that day have to undergo compulsory quarantine for 21 days in designated quarantine hotels.

People arriving in the city who have stayed in Group B specified places also have to present prior to boarding proof of a negative result of a nucleic acid test for COVID-19 conducted within 72 hours before the aircraft's scheduled time of departure.

The Government said it will closely monitor the developments of the global and local epidemic situation and suitably adjust the requirements as needed or as practicable.