Letters | Outdated Covid-19 restrictions only keep Hong Kong frozen in time

Readers express relief at the reduced hotel quarantine but question the rationale of restrictions at all, and say it’s time Hong Kong airport returns to its former bustling avatar

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Pilots at the arrivals hall in the Hong Kong International Airport on September 10. Photo: Yik Yeung-man

Published: 2:30pm, 15 Sep 2022

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This Mid-Autumn Festival marks my eighth quarantine, totalling 87 days in less than two years.

I appreciate the government’s move to reduce the impact of Hong Kong’s quarantine, such as speedier checks at the airport. But it’s difficult to understand how I’ve been able to travel to 11 countries in the last year with no Covid-19 restrictions and without feeling like I’m a risk to others – yet when I land in Hong Kong, it seems I land back in 2020. For a Hong Kong resident today, it’s easier to fly to South Korea or Australia than back to Hong Kong or to mainland China.

Until the end of last year, quarantine, isolation and mask restrictions allowed us to live our lives peacefully and fearlessly amid Covid-19. But things are different now. Omicron is widespread, vaccines and antivirals are widely available, and data is abundant to understand trends and effective measures to minimise the impact of the disease.

I find, therefore, the three days of isolation as ineffective and expensive as ever: involving the needless generation of plastic waste, obsessive and expensive daily testing, massive manpower and paperwork. The same efforts could be poured into a vaccination outreach campaign for the elderly.

Is quarantine and the mandatory vaccination of children really protecting Hong Kong today, when most of the population is likely to have been already been infected and anybody leaving quarantine can be infected on the way home?

We’re heading into the fourth year of the pandemic: our children have paid the biggest price, followed by separated families, and businesses of all kinds.