Hong Kong scraps vaccine pass, COVID-19 tests for travelers
China says it will resume issuing passports for tourism in another big step away from anti-virus controls that isolated the country for almost three years, setting up a potential flood of Chinese going abroad for next month’s Lunar New Year holiday.
The announcement Tuesday adds to abrupt changes that are rolling back some of the world’s strictest anti-virus controls as President Xi Jinping’s government tries to reverse an economic slump. Rules that confined millions of people to their homes kept China’s infection rate low but fueled public frustration and crushed economic growth.
Hong Kong will also scrap some of its COVID-19 restrictions, including PCR tests for inbound travelers and vaccination requirements to enter certain venues, the city’s leader said Wednesday.
The latest decision could send free-spending Chinese tourists to revenue-starved destinations in Asia and Europe for Lunar New Year, which begins Jan. 22 and usually is the country’s busiest travel season. But it also presents a danger they might spread COVID-19 as infections surge in China.
Travel services companies Trip.com and Qunar said international ticket bookings and searches for visa information on their websites rose five to eight times after Tuesday’s announcement. Top destinations included Japan, Thailand, South Korea, the United States, Britain and Australia.
Japan, India, South Korea and Taiwan have responded to the Chinese wave of infections by requiring virus tests for visitors from China.
China stopped issuing visas to foreigners and passports to its own people at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020.
The National Immigration Administration of China said it will start taking applications Jan. 8 for passports for tourists to go abroad.
The agency said it will take applications to extend, renew or reissue visas but gave no indication when they might be issued to first-time applicants.
China will “gradually resume” admitting foreign visitors, the agency said. It gave no indication when tourist travel from abroad might resume.
The changes will “create better conditions for orderly cross-border travel” and “bring more benefits to global economic development,” said a Foreign Ministry spokesman, Wang Wenbin.
China will “work with all countries” to “restore safety and stability to global industrial and supply chains and promote world economic recovery,” Wang said.
Health experts and economists expect the ruling Communist Party to keep limits on travel into China until at least mid-2023 while it carries out a campaign to vaccinate millions of elderly people. Experts say that is necessary to prevent a public health crisis.
During the pandemic, Chinese with family emergencies or work travel deemed important could obtain passports, but some students and businesspeople with visas to go to foreign countries were blocked by border guards from leaving. The handful of foreign businesspeople and others who were allowed into China were quarantined for up to one week.
Before the pandemic, China was the biggest source of foreign tourists for most of its Asian neighbors and an important market for Europe and the United States.
The government has dropped or eased most quarantine, testing and other restrictions within China, joining the United States, Japan and other governments in trying to live with the virus instead of stamping out transmission.
For most of the pandemic, Hong Kong has aligned itself with China’s “zero-COVID” strategy, requiring stringent COVID-19 tests and isolation for close contacts of infected cases as well as for incoming travelers.
But the mainland has relaxed measures in recent weeks, and Hong Kong is preparing for the January reopening of its border with China, which had previously imposed harsh restrictions and snap lockdowns to stamp out the virus.
“Our society as a whole has built an extensive and high-level barrier of immunity (to COVID-19),” said Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee at a news conference. Over 80% of the city has at least three doses of COVID-19 vaccine.
Close contacts of those who test positive for COVID-19 will also no longer need to isolate in Hong Kong, he said, and there will no longer be a limit on the number of diners per table at restaurants. The relaxed measures will take effect from Thursday. (AP)
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