(To watch the full press briefing with sign language interpretation, click here.)

The Government today announced that quarantine requirements for inbound travellers and returnees from certain overseas places will be adjusted from May 12 based on the vaccine bubble concept.

Those who are fully vaccinated, ie after 14 days following the administration of two COVID-19 vaccine doses for production of antibodies, will have their quarantine period reduced.

Permanent Secretary for Food & Health (Health) Thomas Chan told a press briefing this afternoon that the quarantine adjustments took into account the risk assessment of travellers’ countries of origin.

"We are shortening the quarantine (periods) according to the risk groups. So for these inbound travellers, what we would require (is that they are) only fully vaccinated and (have a) negative PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test (result)."

Those coming from the low-risk countries of Australia, New Zealand and Singapore will need to undergo quarantine at designated hotels for seven days instead of the original 14 days, plus seven days of self-monitoring. They should also undergo a post-arrival COVID-19 test on a designated day.

The quarantine period for travellers from medium and high-risk places at the designated hotels will be reduced from 21 to 14 days. This will be followed by seven days of self-monitoring and COVID-19 tests on two separate days.

The quarantine arrangements for people who have stayed in very high-risk places will remain unchanged, while flights from extremely high-risk places will be banned.

For those who arrive from the Mainland, Taiwan and Macau other than the through the Return2hk scheme, their quarantine period will be halved to seven days, plus seven days of self-monitoring and they will also need to undergo a post-arrival COVID-19 test on a designated day. Mr Chan said this measure will also come into effect on May 12.