Image: Reuters Berita 24 English - According to John Lee, the city's new leader, Hong Kong will investigate ways to reduce the length ...
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| Image: Reuters |
Berita 24 English - According to John Lee, the city's new leader, Hong Kong will investigate ways to reduce the length of time travellers must stay in quarantine while still attempting to stop the virus' spread and keep hospitals from being overburdened.
After being sworn in by Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday during celebrations celebrating 25 years since the former British colony's return to Chinese authority, Lee held his first weekly news conference as the city's mayor.
China is the only large nation to employ a "zero COVID" strategy, which attempts to completely eradicate all outbreaks at whatever cost.
Lee told reporters, "I am aware of the necessity for Hong Kong to continue to be open and practical for travellers, but it is also necessary that we manage the hazards at the same time.
Without providing any further information, he added that he had asked Health Secretary Lo Chung-mau to look into reducing the length of the required quarantine for travellers.
In order for him to come up with some possibilities that we might think about, Lee replied, "I'm giving him time to look at the numbers."
Hong Kong, which outside of the mainland has some of the strictest travel restrictions in the world Without increasing regulations, China has recorded daily case counts of almost 2,000 illnesses over the past week. Any mainland metropolis would have to impose very strict restrictions on daily activity given these figures.
The city still requires travellers arriving in Hong Kong to stay in a seven-day hotel quarantine at their own expense and complete a plethora of documents and stringent testing requirements.
If too many passengers test positive after landing, airlines risk suspension, resulting in cancelled flights, people who struggle to rebook their travel and accommodations, and people who wind up trapped, in some cases for months, outside the city.
Lo expressed on Monday his desire for the Shenzhen border to reopen before August 4.
The financial capital of Asia, which saw a significant wave of COVID infections this year, has formally recorded more than 1 million cases and more than 9,000 fatalities, one of the highest fatality rates worldwide since the beginning of the pandemic.
More than 4 million people in the 7.4 million-person city, according to some epidemiologists, may have been infected. According to health experts, despite a recent increase in COVID cases, there is no considerable demand on the city's hospitals.
