HONG KONG –
Hong Kong will reduce the mandatory hotel quarantine for arrivals from abroad to three days from a week, the city’s leader said on Monday.
The southern Chinese city remains one of the few places in the world, along with mainland China, to require a quarantine to prevent travelers from spreading COVID-19 to the local population. The policy that goes into effect on Friday will be Hong Kong’s shortest quarantine for arrivals since the pandemic began.
Hong Kong leader John Lee said arriving travelers must quarantine for three days at a designated hotel and then undergo four days of medical surveillance during which their movements will be restricted through the use of a code system. of health.
Lee said the new policy of just three days in quarantine was made after scientific evidence and data were analyzed to control for risk factors.
“We also have to balance the risks against the economic activities and social life of (people in) Hong Kong,” Lee said.
“(The data) gives us an indication that the risk factor of people who have finished the three-day quarantine in a designated hotel is really nothing more than the level of risk of transmission in society,” he said.
The COVID-19 policy changes come despite a surge in daily infections, which city health officials warn could double to 8,000 in the coming weeks.
During their week of quarantine and surveillance, travelers will also be required to take regular tests for COVID-19 and those who are infected will be required to remain in isolation.
Those who test negative can use public transport and enter shopping centers and markets, but they cannot enter bars and amusement parks or visit nursing homes, schools and certain medical facilities.
For most of the pandemic, Hong Kong has imposed some of the strictest COVID-19 entry restrictions in the world. At one point, Hong Kong required up to 21 days of mandatory hotel quarantine for travelers and a “circuit breaker” mechanism that would bar certain airlines from flying into the city if they imported too many COVID-19 cases.
These measures have devastated the city’s tourism industry and disrupted business travel in a city known as an international financial center and business hub.
Sally Wong, chief executive of the Hong Kong Investment Funds Association, welcomed the easing of the lockdown, describing it as a “big step forward”.
He said the quarantine in Hong Kong would have to be completely lifted for the city to regain its competitiveness.
“But what can move the dial is how can we go from three days to zero,” Wong said. “Many conferences, meetings, etc. are planned months in advance and if the government can (shed) light on the next step, it would be extremely helpful.”
Since the pandemic began, hundreds of thousands of residents have left Hong Kong. Many businesses have also moved to countries like Singapore, where quarantine-free travel has resumed.