The Department of Health today announced that starting from March 8, all inbound travellers arriving at the Hong Kong International Airport will be required to complete and submit a health declaration form.

The arrangement will be extended from inbound flights from the Mainland to all flights arriving in Hong Kong.

All inbound travellers arriving in Hong Kong can choose to fill in and submit an electronic health declaration form on their smartphone or mobile device.

The department will seek the assistance of airline companies to distribute the forms to inbound travellers and disseminate information on the submission of electronic health declaration forms.

Meanwhile, the Centre for Health Protection advised members of the public to consider delaying all non-essential travel outside Hong Kong.

Since February, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in countries and areas outside the Mainland has been on the rise.

The Government earlier issued Red Outbound Travel Alerts (OTA) for Korea and three regions in Italy, as well as alerted the public about the health risk in Iran under the Red OTA already in force.

Additionally, the centre will further extend the Enhanced Laboratory Surveillance Programme to cover all private clinics and hospitals so that cases of COVID-19 can be identified early to minimise the risk of community transmission.

Starting on March 9, private doctors can collect respiratory samples from patients who have a fever or respiratory symptoms and send them to be tested for the virus at accredited private laboratories.

If these samples are tested positive, the centre will arrange the patients concerned for admission to public hospitals for isolation and treatment.