Hong Kong set for prolonged border closure

The country currently enforces a 21-day quarantine period for international arrivals, while passenger flights to eight countries, including the UK, have been banned.

Edward Yau, Hong Kong’s secretary for commerce and economic development, told the Financial Times the outbreak of the Omicron variant reinforced the government’s zero-Covid strategy.

"It will be hard to address [the question of a timeline], as it will be subject to a lot of conditions and situations... I think no one can give you a definite timeline as such," he added.

Hong Kong has recorded just 213 deaths from the pandemic, compared to the UK’s 174,233, and avoided city-wide lockdowns.