COVID-19: Hong Kong reduces quarantine for arrivals from overseas

UPDATE DAY

Hong Kong will reduce the mandatory hotel quarantine from one week to three days for people arriving from overseas, the city's Chief Executive John Lee announced on Monday. >

From Friday, travelers from overseas will be required to spend three nights in one of the government-designated quarantine hotels, before monitoring their health at home or in a hotel of their choice for four days, Lee said.

“We hope to maintain Hong Kong's core business and competitiveness, and give the society economic vitality and the best impetus for its development,” he said. transport and logistics, Hong Kong has been cut off from the world for more than two years due to a draconian health policy in line with China's “zero-COVID” strategy.

Applying some of the strictest sanitary measures in the world, Hong Kong requires travelers arriving from abroad to respect a seven-day quarantine at the hotel, punctuated by several screenings.

The middle of the affairs complained about this policy which prevents employees from traveling abroad.

Mr. Lee rejected the idea that this relaxation means a break with Chinese policy.

“It is not contradictory to stay in contact with the outside world and to work to resume travel without quarantine with the Mainland China,” he said.

Alongside these new quarantine rules, Hong Kong will implement a health QR code system similar to the tracking application set up by the Beijing government.

With this system, an infected person will receive a red code preventing them from leaving their isolation.

People arriving from abroad will have a yellow code at the end of their three days at the hotel and access to certain places such as restaurants, bars and cinemas will be prohibited for them during the four days of self-monitoring.

“The situation could relieve business travelers a little, but it's still not very attractive to tourists,” said Perry Yiu, local MP in charge of the tourism sector.

“I hope (…) we can get rid of the quarantine mandatory in hotels by the fourth quarter of this year.”

A Hong Kong computer scientist is working ant in Singapore says he is cautious before considering a return to his hometown.

“I will adopt a wait-and-see position to see if this policy is stable”, declared this man who asked to be identified by the first name Tom.