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Opinion
Hong Kong cannot ignore 21-day quarantine’s long-term mental health effects
- The lack of care and human contact on offer shows the government is ignoring the well-being of those forced to remain in hotels. The increase to 21 days makes it vital to help those in isolation and separated from loved ones
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Dr Lina Vyas is an associate professor in the Department of Social Sciences and Policy Studies at the Education University of Hong Kong, specialising in public policy and management.
Governments around the world have been working hard to combat Covid-19. Social distancing, limiting flows of people between cities and countries and imposing compulsory home or hotel quarantine have been some of the major efforts besides securing vaccines.
Hong Kong started its first compulsory quarantine for people entering the city from the mainland on February 8, 2020. From March 19, people arriving from all overseas countries had to undergo 14-day compulsory quarantine at home or in other accommodation of their choice.
Later, to reduce contact between travellers from overseas and the local community, the government mandated that arrivals from high-risk places must quarantine at hotels from July 25. It extended the requirement to all arrivals from outside China from November 13.
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Hong Kong now faces its fourth wave of Covid-19. The government announced in December a list of dedicated hotels that were eligible to host recent arrivals who were required to quarantine.
This was meant to enhance protection against imported cases. But people faced high costs and limited choices, forcing them to delay their travel plans or dig into their reserves to comply with the regulations.
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Quarantine and isolation have been vindicated and can certainly be justified ethically. The expected benefit to others and society in disease prevention and limitation outweighs the anticipated costs.
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