WorldHong Kong cuts COVID hotel quarantine to 3 days...

Hong Kong cuts COVID hotel quarantine to 3 days for arrivals : NPR


Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee arrives for a news conference in Hong Kong, Monday, Aug. 8, 2022.

Kin Cheung/AP


hide caption

toggle caption

Kin Cheung/AP


Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee arrives for a news conference in Hong Kong, Monday, Aug. 8, 2022.

Kin Cheung/AP

HONG KONG — Hong Kong will reduce the mandatory hotel quarantine for overseas arrivals to three days from a week, the city’s leader said Monday.

The southern Chinese city remains one of the few places in the world, together with mainland China, to require a quarantine to guard against travelers spreading COVID-19 to the local population. The policy taking effect Friday will be Hong Kong’s shortest quarantine for arrivals since the pandemic began.

Hong Kong leader John Lee said arriving travelers must quarantine three days in a designated hotel, then undergo four days of medical surveillance during which their movements will be restricted via the use of a health code system.

Lee said that the new policy of just three days in quarantine was made after scientific evidence and data had been analyzed to control the risk factors.

“We also have to balance the risks against the economic activities and the social lives of (people in) Hong Kong,” Lee said.

“(The data) gives us the indication that the risk factor of people who have finished three days quarantine in a designated hotel … is actually no more than the risk level of transmission in society,” he said.

The changes to COVID-19 policies come in spite of an increase 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 have to test regularly for COVID-19 and those who are infected must stay in isolation.

Those who test negative can use public transit and enter malls and markets, but they can’t enter bars and amusement parks or visit elderly homes, schools and certain medical facilities.

For most of the pandemic, Hong Kong has imposed some of the world’s strictest COVID-19 entry restrictions. At one point, Hong Kong required up to 21 days of compulsory hotel quarantine for travelers and a “circuit breaker” mechanism that would ban flights from certain airlines into the city if they import too many COVID-19 cases.

These measures have devastated the city’s tourism industry and disrupted business travel in a city known for being an international financial center and a business hub.

Since the pandemic began, hundreds of thousands of residents have left Hong Kong. Many companies have also relocated to countries like Singapore where quarantine-free travel has resumed.



Original Source Link

Latest News

Wall Street could see another good quarter after strong start to 2024

Wall Street could be in for another solid quarter as stocks have embarked on a strong start to...

FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried Sentenced By Judge To 25 Years In Prison

Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison by a...

Bug Zappers Are Swarming on Amazon

Call it a bug zapper, not a feature.Data from Fakespot, a service owned by Mozilla that helps consumers...

District Court Judgment in 303 Creative v. Elenis (the Wedding Web Site Design Case)

Following the Supreme Court's remand to the Tenth Circuit, which in turn led to the remand to district...

How patient-led research could speed up medical innovation

Melissa Red Hoffman was “feeling really stuck” last summer. A 50-year-old surgeon in Asheville, N.C., Hoffman had been...

Must Read

Dogs know words for their favorite toys

Dogs may know more than they let on....

Why cryonics is a non-starter in our quest for immortality

It's a scene plucked from science fiction: On...
- Advertisement -

You might also likeRELATED
Recommended to you