Hong Kong’s John Lee to discuss cutting Covid-19 hotel quarantine

Hong Kong’s leader John Lee and his team will hold a meeting Wednesday (Aug 3) to discuss reducing mandatory hotel quarantine for overseas arrivals.

Health officials may present data on nucleic acid tests collected from arrivals in hotel quarantine in the meeting, according to the report, citing people it didn’t identify.

Lee and his officials may not make a final decision on the duration of hotel quarantine at the meeting.

Earlier this week, Lee said that the government would soon announce reducing the number of required days of hotel quarantine, though he didn’t give further detail.

The authority is considering reducing hotel quarantine for arrivals to five days or less, from seven days, Secretary for Health Lo Chung-mau said.

Arrivals will be required to use a so-called yellow health code and refrain from visiting high-risk places, and may also have to complete rapid antigen tests every two days.

Hong Kong still has some of the most stringent quarantine requirements in the world, in line with China’s zero-Covid policy that has been abandoned elsewhere.

It has relaxed some restrictions on travel and general movement, but social distancing rules such as mask-wearing remain largely in place.

Hong Kong reported on Tuesday 4,123 new Covid-19 infections, including 234 imported cases.

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES