Hong Kong to relax restrictions on overseas travellers as COVID-19 outbreak appears to wane

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For two years now, Hong Kong has been largely closed off to the outside world, with visitors subject to as much as three weeks of mandatory quarantine in a hotel or government-run camp as part of the city’s “zero COVID” approach.

Starting April 1, this will be reduced to seven days, and a ban on travel from nine countries – including Canada – will be lifted, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam said Monday.

Business leaders, foreign diplomats and chambers of commerce have been lobbying the Hong Kong government for months now to drop or relax the stringent quarantine requirements introduced in March, 2020, warning that they were harming the city’s economy and causing an exodus of talent. They were repeatedly told that the goal of reopening the border with mainland China took priority, and since this could only be achieved by reaching zero cases, travellers from other countries had to be quarantined.

Then Omicron struck.

After recording just 13,000 cases and 213 deaths in the first two years of the pandemic, Hong Kong has logged more than 1,035,059 cases and 5,683 deaths since late December – the highest number of fatalities per capita in the world. Hospitals have been overwhelmed, with bodies piling up as funeral homes struggle to cope and run out of coffins.

With the number of cases skyrocketing, the restrictions on overseas travellers began to look ridiculous. Earlier this month, the United States, which is included in the flight ban, issued a travel warning for Hong Kong “due to COVID-19 and COVID-19-related restrictions, including the risk of parents and children being separated.”

Speaking at a news conference Monday, Ms. Lam acknowledged that “for inbound travellers the quarantine requirement is far more stringent than for infected people in Hong Kong,” who can isolate at home for the most part.

“This has affected our business environment, particularly with regard to the U.S. and European countries,” she said, adding, “We have to make preparation for the relaunch of our economy.”

Fortunately, the city’s COVID-19 wave appears to be ebbing.

“According to experts, the pandemic has peaked, and this is clear when we look at the seven-day moving average,” Ms. Lam said. Daily cases are now trending below 20,000, after topping 66,000 earlier this month.

As well as pressure over travel restrictions, Ms. Lam has faced intense criticism in recent weeks for her perceived lack of leadership during the recent outbreak, with often confusing and contradictory guidance sparking runs on supermarkets and general panic.

And the criticism has not been limited to the city’s highly neutered opposition, with multiple pro-Beijing figures lambasting Ms. Lam, whose term expires this year.

Writing in the South China Morning Post last week, billionaire property developer Ronnie Chan said Hong Kong’s situation is comparable to that of New York, London and other Western cities at the start of the pandemic.

“What makes our case unjustifiable is that, in 2020, no one knew what the virus was like and there was no vaccine. That is no longer the case today,” he said. “The plain fact is our government has not handled the pandemic competently, even to this day.”

Former government adviser Wong Chack-kie took it a step further, calling the current crisis a “man-made calamity.”

“If a leader is of any virtue, he or she should resign in shame after seeing so many elderly people die of policy faults,” Mr. Wong wrote in a newspaper column.

One major complaint has been the lack of a clear plan for how Hong Kong will emerge from the crisis, with many residents frustrated and demoralized because they don’t know when or under what circumstances restrictions will be lifted and normal life can resume.

At her news conference Monday, Ms. Lam appeared to address this criticism, laying out a three-stage plan for relaxing physical-distancing measures over the next three months.

This will begin with the new travel rules coming into force April 1, followed by the resumption of most in-person schooling on April 19. Beginning April 21, gyms, beauty salons and religious venues will be allowed to reopen, and restaurants will be able to offer indoor dining until 10 p.m., up from 6 p.m. currently. The limit on gatherings will be raised from two people to four.

The second phase, which should start in May, will see the reopening of bars and clubs, the further relaxing of limits on in-person dining and the lifting of some mask requirements. From June, if cases have continued their downward trend, most remaining limits should be lifted.

“This is only a road map,” Ms. Lam warned. “We will continue to monitor the development of the virus. Things can change very quickly.”

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