Hong Kong's daily COVID-19 infections hit 3-month high

To reduce imported cases, the government also raised the threshold for the crew members of flights to obtain exemption of quarantine. Among the new requirements starting Sunday is that they must have a negative testing result within 48 hours and take another test after arriving in Hong Kong.

Data showed crew members of flights accounted for about 93 percent of all the visitors exempted from quarantine in Hong Kong every day.

The exemption policy for other visitors including sailors of cargo ships was also tightened.