Hong Kong Government announced today (February 3) that normal travel of persons between Hong Kong and the Mainland will be fully resumed starting from February 6.
All pre-departure testing requirements for travelling between the two places will also be lifted at the same time. Except for persons who have stayed in overseas places or Taiwan on the day of entering the Mainland or during the seven days before that day, other cross-boundary travellers will not be required to conduct any pre-departure test for travelling between the Mainland, Hong Kong and Macao. Meanwhile, the pre-departure testing requirement for inbound persons from overseas places or Taiwan will be maintained at this time.
After the implementation of full resumption of normal travel on February 6, all inbound persons from the Mainland or Macao will no longer be required to conduct any pre-departure nucleic acid tests or rapid antigen tests (RATs). However, for persons travelling from Hong Kong to the Mainland (except those aged 3 and below), if they have stayed in overseas places or Taiwan on the day of departing Hong Kong for the Mainland or during the seven days before that day, they will still be required to conduct a nucleic acid test within 48 hours prior to departure and obtain a negative result as per the Mainland’s requirements.
The self-paid nucleic acid test conducted in Hong Kong should meet the following criteria:
The test must be conducted within 48 hours before the scheduled flight departure time (for those entering the Mainland via the airport) or arrival time (for those entering the Mainland via other boundary control points);
The test specimen must be a throat swab, nasopharyngeal swab or combined nasal and throat swab collected by dedicated staff; and
The test result must be negative, and the test report must be issued by local COVID-19 testing institutions recognized by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government (including community testing centres/community testing stations in various districts) for conducting reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction testing.
