Relaxing some travel rules is only the start of a longer journey
- Hong Kong officials should aim for further adjustment of remaining measures with a view to lifting all of them
Hong Kong’s decision to reopen to visitors from May 1, subject to strict conditions, has sparked a warm welcome at home and abroad. Families and businesspeople alike are considering plans to return. It is a first step towards ending the city’s self-imposed isolation from the rest of the world as it battles its fifth wave of coronavirus infection. Yet it is a very limited relaxation that still requires arrivals to book seven days of hotel quarantine and undertake mandatory preflight coronavirus testing, long required of returning residents. The lifting of flight bans is still subject to five days of suspension of services if a carrier lands a very small number of infected passengers. So even after finalising arrangements, travellers could face abrupt cancellations and the need to reorganise.
It is clear officials still see travel as a loophole in the city’s Covid- clearing policy over which they must keep a tight grip. But this continues to create uncertainty and disruption among all stakeholders that remain a deterrent to travel and opening up.
The positive reaction to such a limited, incremental relaxation of restrictions serves to remind us that isolation, under some of the world’s toughest Covid-19 restrictions, has imposed a heavy human and economic burden on Hong Kong and its people. It comes at an unsustainable cost to the city’s reputation as an international finance and tourism hub that is dependent on connectivity. It therefore raises serious questions about the relative benefit of maintaining them.
Expats who left Hong Kong when Covid-19 cases shot up are now returning
Thankfully, there is abundant evidence of an increasingly positive environment for Hong Kong to open its doors further and join other countries devastated by the Omicron variant in restoring normal life and living with the virus to a greater degree. It is reflected in a shift in the government’s hardline approach to relax social-distancing measures and ease some travel restrictions. The key factor is an improved vaccination rate among children and the elderly.
The coronavirus is still among us. The fifth wave of Covid-19 infection has taken a terrible toll. A rebound in contagion cannot be ruled out. But the daily tallies of reported infections and deaths are falling. There is no longer any immediate need to be sealed off, unless perhaps a dangerous new variant of the virus emerges. Even then, the city would probably be better placed to deal with it than for the Omicron outbreak. There is room for a better balance between the risk of more arrivals bringing in new cases and the need for Hong Kong to reopen to the world and catch up with regional rivals such as Singapore. Officials should aim for further adjustment of remaining measures with a view to lifting all of them. The suggestion of a self-monitoring home-quarantine option for travellers, subject to monitoring, could be worth exploring.
