Hong Kong weighs Covid-19 quarantine exemptions for banking summit

Hong Kong is considering a series of travel and quarantine exemptions for participants in a November investment summit designed to trumpet the financial hub’s revival, according to a local media report.

The government is studying exemptions that would allow participants to skip mandatory hotel quarantine as part of its plan to ensure the summit can go ahead even if the city cannot further ease Covid-19 curbs for travelers by then.

Several of Wall Street’s biggest banks have made quarantine-free travel a precondition for senior executives to attend the conference, people familiar with the discussions said. Hong Kong reduced the period of time visitors spend in hotel quarantine to three days from seven earlier this month.

While down from as long as 21 days required in the past, the city’s curbs continue to keep it isolated from the rest of the world, where travel has largely resumed pre-pandemic patterns.

Hong Kong’s top officials remain uncertain whether the financial hub can scrap hotel quarantine for all visitors by November, the report added.

The city is now reporting over 6,000 cases daily, the highest numbers since March, and hospitalisations are growing.

Hospitals have scaled back on non-emergency services to cope with the Covid-19 load, while isolation facilities like exhibition venue the Asia World Expo have been reopened to ease pressure on the healthcare system.

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES