It looks like Qatar Airways will not be flying to Hong Kong for the time being. The airline has been banned from operating its route from Doha to Hong Kong under the nation’s latest flight suspension rules regarding COVID-19.
According to local news, the ban is effective from June 7, 2022 to June 13, 2022 and was imposed after one traveler on flight QR818 on June 5, 2022 failed to comply with Hong Kong’s current COVID-19 entry regulations, while three passengers tested positive on arrival.
However, it is not yet known how the passenger breached Hong Kong’s entry regulations.
Based on Hong Kong airport’s latest entry regulation update, overseas passengers arriving in Hong Kong “will be required to undergo a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) nucleic acid test by professional swab sampling as well as a rapid antigen test (RAT) with professional specimen collection at the same time upon arrival under the ‘test-and-hold’ arrangement at TSCC-1 at the airport. If the RAT result of the relevant person is negative, he or she can then proceed with immigration procedures, and upon the instruction of the staff on site be transferred by designated transport to designated quarantine hotels where he or she will wait for the nucleic acid test result and undergo compulsory quarantine under closed-loop management.”
Qatar Airways has been placed under Hong Kong’s temporary flight ban at least twice since the administrative region began to ban flights in an effort to curb COVID-19 cases.