How the city can welcome people back
It is possible for Hong Kong to allow an open border while maintaining a protective posture.
• Replace all border restrictions and pre-departure Covid-19 test requirements with mandatory testing on arrival and daily for seven days.
• Bar entry and transit except for those fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, or to the extent they can be, given their personal situation (such as age and health issues).
• Quarantine those who test positive on arrival until they test negative for three days. Issue those who test negative with a GPS monitor to be worn for a minimum of seven days or until they test negative for three consecutive days. The device cost is to be paid upon arrival and refunded upon the return of the device in good working order.
Anybody who tests negative for Covid-19 on arrival must also submit a test online for each of the next six days.
Any resident who tests positive during the week must isolate, register online, take a quarantine taxi to a designated isolation location as soon as possible (within three hours) at their own expense and remain where instructed until they test negative for three consecutive days.
If considered low-risk, a fully vaccinated resident might be permitted to isolate at home.
Any non-resident who tests positive would be offered the choice to quarantine until they test negative for three consecutive days, and then continue their visit. Alternatively, they may return to their point of origin.
• To ensure compliance, anyone who fails to register for quarantine within three hours of a positive test is subject to arrest, with officers immediately dispatched to their tagged location.
Anyone tagged who fails to provide a Covid-19 test result 24 hours after the previous test will be assumed to be positive, and subject to immediate arrest. They will be charged with violating testing requirements and subject to being locked up under quarantine until they test negative, fined HK$50,000 and jailed for a year.
• Anyone found to have removed or disabled their GPS device would be guilty of breaching the quarantine system and subject to a fine of HK$100,000 plus a twoyear sentence.
• Any foreigner found guilty of either of the above offences is to be deported permanently.
The beauty of the regimen I advocate is that it could be maintained indefinitely with minimal interference in the daily activities and travel plans of anyone who does not test positive for Covid-19, as well as rapidly reapplied should any other variant surface later or some other pandemic break out.
Douglas Wilson, Causeway Bay