The sudden and unwarranted changes to Hong Kong’s quarantine requirements have disrupted the travel plans of many and caused huge mental and financial distress. A petition has been signed by around 1,000 supporters, but has been ignored by government officials. A lot of people have also reached out to government officials, only to receive a standard copy-and-paste reply. According to a number of research studies, the median incubation period of Covid-19 is around four to five days, though at times it could be as long as 14 days. What is the probability of someone developing the illness after 14 days and after the required three to four Covid-19 tests (preflight and post-arrival) for entry to Hong Kong? Likely minuscule . Even though mutated strains were found in the UK and South Africa , from where flights are already banned , it is an overkill for arrivals from all countries (except China) to have to quarantine in a hotel for 21 days. In fact, having gone through three to four Covid-19 tests, returnees are actually the safest members of the community. Since we are in the middle of a pandemic, if any part of the community (such as taxi drivers) are tested, there will always be some who test positive – likely with a probability rate higher than that of returnees. Instead of scapegoating vulnerable returnees, the wiser strategy would be to focus more on controlling community spread, such as the dance cluster , which accounted for more recent new cases than imported ones. According to research published in The Lancet , the “psychological impact of quarantine is wide-ranging, substantial, and can be long lasting”. Hence, “depriving people of their liberty for the wider public good is often contentious and needs to be handled carefully. If quarantine is essential, then [the] results suggest that officials should take every measure to ensure that this experience is as tolerable as possible for people.” The first recommendation to mitigate the consequences of quarantine is to “keep it as short as possible”. Almost all other countries are implementing 14-day quarantine, with some even reducing it to below 14 days upon negative Covid-19 test results, as per some recent studies indicating a eight-day quarantine could be as effective or even more effective than a 14-day one. New guidebook aims to help Hongkongers beat quarantine stress Many countries such as Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines are paying for the full cost of quarantine for returning citizens if hotel quarantine is mandatory. It would only be fair for the Hong Kong government to do the same or at least subsidise the cost for its citizens. L. Lam, Vancouver