China is set to open its border with Hong Kong on Sunday for the first time in three years as Beijing continues to roll back its strict Covid-19 curbs.
The reopening will see the resumption of quarantine-free travel between the financial hub and the mainland, although it would be done in a “gradual and orderly” way, China’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office said in a notice on Thursday.
China is also set to reopen to the world on Sunday, welcoming international travellers and returning residents without the need to quarantine for the first time since 2020, even as infections surge after it scrapped its Covid-19 curbs.
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Hong Kong closely followed China’s tough zero-Covid-19 policy until the middle of 2022 when it began to ease some of restrictions.
The former British colony dropped all of its Covid-19 rules in December but masks remain mandatory except while exercising.
Hong Kong and China have trailed most of the world in easing stringent Covid-19 precautions and the border reopening was postponed several times over the past year because of Covid-19 outbreaks in one or the other.
People in Hong Kong have only been able to reach the mainland via the city’s airport or just two checkpoints, one at Shenzhen Bay and the other via the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge.
Most other border points including the West Kowloon high speed rail terminus have been closed since early 2020.
Before the coronavirus emerged in China in late 2019, there were more than 236 million passenger trips over their border a year, government data showed.
China will no longer require people to present Covid-19 tests upon arrival in the mainland from Hong Kong, while China will issue special tourism and business visas for mainland residents to visit Hong Kong from January 8, the office said.
China will also increase flights between the mainland, Hong Kong and Macau, it said.
Hong Kong residents have flocked to clinics to get vaccinated against Covid-19 ahead of the border reopening, which some fear could bring a surge in both infections and demand for mRNA vaccines that are not widely available in the mainland.
- Reuters with additional editing by Sean O’Meara
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