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SINGAPORE: The Hong Kong government had applied a COVID-19 border regulation 23 times to prohibit flights from landing in the city for 14 days if an airline is found to have breached the requirements.
The Hong Kong Department of Health said this on Saturday (April 3) in response to inquiries from the CNA, after it was announced that Singapore Airlines (SIA) passenger flights departing Singapore will be temporarily unable to land in Hong Kong.
This was triggered by a COVID-19 case on flight SQ882 on March 31.
The 28-year-old woman came to Hong Kong from Indonesia. According to the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) on Friday, she was a passenger in transit who tested negative for coronavirus on a pre-departure swab, but then tested positive upon arrival in Hong Kong.
She was asymptomatic.
READ: Singapore Airlines Passenger Flights to Hong Kong Suspended After COVID-19 Testing ‘Trigger Point’ Breaked: CAAS
Additionally, three other transit passengers on the SIA flight had undergone pre-departure COVID-19 tests at clinics in their hometowns that did not meet Hong Kong requirements, CAAS said.
Flights will not be able to land in Hong Kong if:
- A flight has five or more passengers confirmed to have COVID-19, through samples collected at the Hong Kong Department of Health’s Temporary Sample Collection Center.
- Two consecutive flights from the same original port of the same airline have three or more passengers confirmed to have COVID-19
- A flight has one or more passengers confirmed to have COVID-19 and one or more cases that did not meet the requirements specified in Chapter 599H.
“If any of the above criteria are met, passenger flights from the relevant original port of the airline in question will be prohibited from landing in Hong Kong for 14 days,” said the Hong Kong Department of Health.
CAAS said on Friday that SIA violated one of the “trigger points,” adding: “Other airlines have similarly violated trigger points before as they are strictly enforced by the Hong Kong authorities.”
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