Top Hong Kong adviser “very optimistic” city will open up within year

February 9, 2022 Hong Kong Crime & Legal

A top adviser to Hong Kong’s leader is “very optimistic” the city will reopen to the world within the next year and said shortening Covid-19 quarantines for inbound travelers is the government’s next objective.

“I’m very hopeful as more data shows the omicron variant’s incubation period is actually much shorter, that perhaps we can aim for a shorter quarantine time,” Bernard Chan, a financier and convener of Chief Executive Carrie Lam’s advisory Executive Council, said in a Bloomberg Television interview Wednesday.

“You know, that’s probably the next objective,” he added, referencing inbound travel restrictions. “We all want to end this thing as soon as we can.”

When asked if Hong Kong could reopen to the world within the next year, Chan said once the city had a “fully vaccinated community” and a better knowledge of omicron he was “very optimistic” it could meet that target.

Hong Kong has some of the world’s strictest border controls that require incoming vaccinated residents to quarantine for as long as 14 days, while flight bans are still in place on eight countries including the U.S. and the U.K. Chan said the government receives complaints about

its lengthy quarantine rules on an almost “hourly basis.”

As cities like Singapore and London open up and adjust to living with the virus, the rules put Hong Kong at risk of losing its edge as a financial hub. High-ranking executives at top banks are among those stuck outside the city due to travel bans, while companies say they’re having difficulty hiring from overseas.

Nevertheless, the government has re-iterated its commitment to the China-aligned Covid Zero strategy. On Tuesday, Lam announced Hong Kong’s strictest social distancing curbs since the pandemic began, including limits of private gatherings, after the city reported a record 625 new infections.

No city has ever quashed an outbreak of this size without months in full lockdown.