Hong Kong Lifts COVID-19 Restrictions and Plans to Reopen Border With China

A trolley carrying cartons of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine is transported to a warehouse after being unloaded from a Cathay Pacific cargo plane at Hong Kong International Airport on Feb. 27, 2021. Jerome Favre/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Since Beijing announced it is reopening China’s borders, Hong Kong announced that beginning on Dec. 29, most of the pandemic measures will be lifted but the mask mandate will remain in effect.

On Dec. 28, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said that the vaccination rate in Hong Kong is relatively high, and that more than 2.5 million people having already tested positive for COVID-19. The government decided to relax the pandemic restrictions and focus on preventing severe COVID-19 cases and deaths, and increasing the vaccination rate of people in high-risk groups.

No More Vaccine Pass

Effective Dec. 29, all compulsory quarantine orders for close contact are lifted; anyone with close connections will only receive health advice. All social distancing measures and any restriction orders for gatherings, restaurants and bars, as well as the vaccine pass, are canceled.