Letters | Covid-19 in Hong Kong: don’t invite trouble with quarantine exemptions

I think this move will definitely put public health in Hong Kong at risk. The Covid-19 pandemic has been raging across the world for nearly a year now. It is natural for people to experience pandemic fatigue, and some of us may no longer adhere to social distancing guidelines as strictly. This, together with the quarantine exemption for some residents, could increase infection risks.

Although there will be long-term centres dedicated to Covid-19 testing, and a daily quota is likely to be set on quarantine exemption, these measures are surely not enough to fully safeguard everyone’s health in Hong Kong.

Furthermore, there may be a higher risk of more community outbreaks of coronavirus infection. With more Hongkongers coming back from the mainland, and being exempted from quarantine, the risk of imported cases will be higher, as there may well be asymptomatic carriers among them.

Covid-19 has reappeared in the mainland lately, even though most of the reported cases are imported. Although the overall Covid-19 situation in the mainland has been very stable for months, we should still prevent any potentially infected person from coming into contact with the general population. Quarantine for all arrivals should be the preferred policy.

Yanni Cheng, Kwai Chung