HONG KONG TO DECIDE ON FURTHER COVID RELAXATION ‘SOON’–CITY LEADER
HONG KONG— Hong Kong’s leader on Tuesday said he would soon make a decision on further relaxing coronavirus restrictions, as residents and businesses decry quarantine rules that have kept the finance hub cut off for more than two years.
“We will make a decision soon and announce to the public,” Chief Executive John Lee told reporters.
“We want to be connected with the different places in the world. We would like to have an orderly opening up,” he added.
Lee’s comments came as a senior Chinese official also signaled support for an easing of the curbs during a rare briefing.
“It’s normal for the Hong Kong government to adjust and improve Hong Kong’s antiepidemic measures accordingly,” Huang Liuquan, deputy director of China’s
Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, told reporters in Beijing.
Hong Kong has adhered to a version of China’s strict zero-COVID rules throughout the pandemic, battering the economy and deepening the city’s brain drain as rival business
hubs reopen.
It maintains mandatory hotel quarantine for international arrivals—currently at three days—widespread masking, business operating limits and bans on more than four people gathering in public.
Lee, a Beijing-anointed former security chief, took office in July and vowed to reopen the city while keeping cases low.
He reduced hotel quarantine from seven to three days but has faced a growing chorus of criticism from residents, business organizations and health experts saying he should go further.
Over the past week multiple Hong Kong media outlets have reported, citing sources, that the government has already agreed to lift quarantine.
Lee would not confirm that decision or commit to a firm timeline on Tuesday.
But his comments were the strongest indication yet that Hong Kong is planning to join much of the rest of the world in accepting endemicity.
That would leave just China and Taiwan still maintaining mandatory quarantine for arrivals.