In light of the resumption of normal travel between Hong Kong and the Mainland on January 8, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government announced details of the relevant testing arrangements in Hong Kong today.

Starting January 8, all people heading to the Mainland from Hong Kong must possess a valid self-paid COVID-19 nucleic acid test result conducted within 48 hours prior to entry and declare the test result in the customs health declaration card.

The test must be conducted within 48 hours before the scheduled flight departure time for those entering the Mainland via the airport or 48 hours before the arrival time for those entering the Mainland via other boundary control points.

The test specimen must be a throat swab, nasopharyngeal swab or combined nasal and throat swab collected by dedicated staff. A deep throat saliva specimen is not accepted.

The test report must be issued by local COVID-19 testing institutions recognised by the Hong Kong SAR Government for conducting reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction testing.

More than 80 community testing centres (CTCs) or community testing stations (CTSs) in various districts across the city provide a self-paid nucleic acid testing service and issue test result reports for travelling to the Mainland.

The self-paid testing service is provided in two ways. The standard self-paid service includes a service price capped at $150 and the express self-paid service comprises a service price capped at $240.

The Hong Kong SAR Government recommends cross-boundary travellers use the standard self-paid service under normal circumstances.

Notwithstanding cases where positive results are detected and more time is required for checking and confirmation, people using the standard self-paid service will receive the test result within 24 hours of specimen collection, enabling them to have sufficient time for entering the Mainland.

To streamline the specimen collection procedures, throat swab samples, instead of combined nasal and throat swab samples, will be collected for self-paid nucleic acid tests conducted at CTCs or CTSs starting tomorrow.

Testees may request and opt for other specimen collection methods that suit their own needs. The charge of these self-paid testing services remains the same.

To cope with the needs arising from the resumption of normal travel, the available time slots open for online booking will be increased from the next two weeks to the next four weeks.

The Hong Kong SAR Government estimates that CTCs and CTSs still have sufficient quota and capacity to cope with over 100,000 self-paid tests per day at the initial stage of the resumption of normal travel.

To reduce the waiting time on site, the Hong Kong SAR Government strongly advises testees to book testing time slots online in advance and use the Testing Registration Code for registration.

Apart from community testing facilities, some private hospitals and private laboratories also provide a self-paid nucleic acid testing service for cross-boundary travel.

In a bid to provide greater convenience to people heading to the Mainland from Hong Kong, starting today, people who use the self-paid testing service can download their nucleic acid testing electronic record from the COVID-19 Electronic Testing Record System and present the relevant record in electronic or paper form or they may screen capture it for checking by staff at the boundary control points.

As for free testing, as per previous practice, results of free community tests shown in mobile phone SMS messages will not be accepted for cross-boundary and outbound travel. The Electronic Testing Record System will cease to support the downloading of electronic records of free tests from today onwards.

Separately, the Transport & Logistics Bureau announced that from midnight on January 8, the Mainland authorities will resume the operation qualification for all cross-boundary goods vehicle (CBGV) drivers entering the Mainland, as well as restore the pre-epidemic management of cross-boundary transport. 

CBGV drivers will only need to present to the Mainland Customs proof of a negative nucleic acid test result within 48 hours prior to entering the Mainland, the bureau added.