Hong Kong is set to relax the threshold for suspending incoming flights carrying passengers infected with Covid-19, from the existing three to five, the Post has learned.

A source familiar with the matter said the government would make an announcement “very soon” in a bid to further ease flight restrictions.

“Raising the threshold for suspending inbound flights that bring in passengers found to be infected with coronavirus would reduce the likelihood of suspension,” the insider said. “The government considers the risks brought by the relaxation of restrictions on incoming travellers since the beginning of the month as still manageable.”

Hong Kong lifted a blanket ban on travel from nine countries on April 1, while the compulsory hotel quarantine for returning residents was also halved to seven days. A slight adjustment to the route-specific suspension mechanism was also made, cutting the period of a flight ban from a fortnight to a week.

Under the mechanism, a ban is triggered if at least three passengers from a flight are found to be infected with Covid-19 when they are tested upon arrival at the Hong Kong airport, or if one tested positive and at least one or more failed to comply with rules on hotel quarantine bookings and pre-departure tests.

Turkish Airlines, for instance, was barred from flying from Istanbul to Hong Kong for a week after three passengers on board an April 8 flight tested positive for the coronavirus.

Before April 1, a flight ban was also triggered if four or more passengers on the same route within a week tested positive for Covid-19, but the rule was scrapped at the start of the month.

There have been more than 70 flight route bans so far this year. Apart from Turkish Airlines, other carriers that were handed week-long suspensions included Qatar Airways, Cathay Pacific Airways, Emirates Airlines and Singapore Airlines.

Anthony Wu Ting-yuk, former chairman of the Hong Kong Hospital Authority, said he could not understand the logic of the existing mechanism.

“The stringent rules have seriously affected Hong Kong’s connections with the international community,” he said.

Wu, a member of the Standing Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the nation’s top advisory body, noted that many businesspeople, particularly expatriates from the financial sector, were leaving Hong Kong in droves because of the tough pandemic-control measures.

“It definitely undermines our status as an international financial centre,” he said.

Anthony Wu Ting-yuk, former chairman of the Hospital Authority, said the strict flight restrictions have hurt Hong Kong’s connections with the world.

The imminent adjustment to the route-specific suspension mechanism comes after People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s mouthpiece, warned in a commentary on Thursday that Hongkongers should be cautious of a potential rebound of Covid-19 infections.

“Hong Kong’s epidemic situation is going in a good direction, but [we] can’t afford to be careless,” it wrote.

The commentary also said that enforcing a “dynamic-zero” infection strategy was a prerequisite for the city to resume quarantine-free travel with mainland China.

“The epidemic control in Hong Kong forms a part of the national anti-pandemic strategy,” it said. “The epidemic fight in Hong Kong is not just a matter of one city or one place.”