Coronavirus: Hong Kong to ease tough pandemic-control measures from next month with flight bans lifted, quarantine period for travellers cut
- Chief Executive Carrie Lam reveals government will ease restrictions on arrivals from April 1 while putting on hold contentious plan for compulsory universal testing
- Businesses will start reopening in phases from April 21 but Lam does not give a timetable for resuming normal travel between Hong Kong and mainland China
Hong Kong’s leader has announced a significant easing of tough pandemic-control measures from next month that will include halving the quarantine period for travellers arriving in the city and lifting bans on flights from nine countries.
After conceding last week that the public had reached the limits of tolerance for some of the strictest anti-pandemic measures in the world, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor on Monday revealed that following an interim review, the government would ease restrictions on arrivals from April 1, while putting on hold a contentious plan for compulsory universal testing of the entire population.
While she announced that businesses would start reopening in phases from April 21, she did not give a timetable on the all-important resumption of normal travel between Hong Kong and mainland China.
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Covid-19: Hong Kong to open schools, lift flight ban, cut quarantine time and suspend mass testing
“To really map out a longer-term road map, not only in dealing with this particular wave but also a future wave, and not only in dealing with Covid-19 but perhaps another virus in future, we do need to do more monitoring of the epidemic development, including what the World Health Organization has to say about this pandemic,” Lam said.
“We have to listen more carefully to the experts, both locally and from the mainland.”
Despite the planned relaxation of social-distancing measures from next month, Lam stressed that this did not mean the city was embracing the type of “living with the virus” strategy that has been adopted by many countries.
The business sector and travellers largely welcomed the easing of restrictions, but some complained that a phased reopening over three months was too slow and more businesses would shut down if they could not reopen in April.
