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Coronavirus Hong Kong
OpinionLetters

Letters | Will Hong Kong only ease Covid-19 quarantine restrictions in 2023?

  • Readers discuss Hong Kong’s Covid-19 strategy, how to cope with quarantine, the MTR’s discount scheme, and China’s growing military prowess

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A lone passenger arrives at Hong Kong airport on November 2. Most arrivals to Hong Kong must undergo at least two weeks of quarantine in a government-designated hotel. Photo: Sam Tsang
Letters
The new requirement that recovered Covid-19 patients will have to undergo 14 days of quarantine is not only unethical, it is inhumane. Imagine being unfortunate enough to have been infected by Covid-19 and hospitalised for a period of time, then upon discharge to find yourself in quarantine again in another hospital for 14 days! The mental stress will be tremendous.

Is there data to confirm that a recovered Covid-19 patient is still infectious even with a low viral count in the body?

Global data indicates that for Covid-19, the latent period – from the point of infection to the person being infectious, with the virus detectable on PCR tests – is 3-5 days. If so, why should the quarantine period be as long as 14 to 21 days?

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Hong Kong has had effectively zero local infections for close to six months, and the government insists on stringent quarantine rules to negotiate with the mainland to reopen the border. We appreciate that the government wants to open the border with mainland China first and is holding talks for quarantine-free travel to and from mainland to restart in a “gradual and orderly manner”.
It’s now been suggested that by June 2022, several of the 10 land checkpoints would fully reopen (“Coronavirus: Hong Kong border with mainland China to fully reopen to quarantine-free travel by June at latest, official sources say”, November 8).
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Does this mean Hong Kong intends to keep its brutal and inhumane quarantine rules till June 2022 at the earliest or up to as late as 2023 (given reports that China may continue to isolate itself till 2023) so that the border with the mainland is kept open to us?

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