Opinion | Where’s Hong Kong plan to ensure vaccinated travellers can come and go freely?

Name: Hong Kong to shorten mandatory quarantine to 7 days for fully vaccinated residents, travellers
Uploaded: 2021-06-27T06:30:15.000Z
Duration: 2 min 9 s
Description: Hong Kong to shorten mandatory quarantine to 7 days for fully vaccinated residents, travellers

The partial relaxation of quarantine arrangements sounds like a reasonable step forwards, but on closer scrutiny it amounts to very little

The government must take decisive action to increase Hong Kong’s vaccination rate instead of relying on interim measures that only buy time

Reading Time:3 minutes

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Staff members stand ready outside the Sheraton Hong Kong Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui, one of the city’s designated quarantine hotels, on June 22. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

Mike Rowse

Published: 2:30pm, 27 Jun 2021Updated: 2:30pm, 27 Jun 2021

If there was an event at the Tokyo Olympics next month for ducking tough issues, the Hong Kong administration would be clear favourites for the gold medal. The partial relaxation of quarantine arrangements announced last week sounds like a reasonable step forwards but, on closer scrutiny, it amounts to very little.

Nominally reducing the quarantine period in certain circumstances from 14 days to seven for fully vaccinated returning residents might be helpful for a very small number. However, the system requires confirmed hotel bookings for the whole two weeks and hotels will only commit upon full payment.

If anyone does test negative for the virus and positive for antibodies to become eligible for the shorter period, then the room which has been paid for is no longer required for the second week. The returnee will want a refund but the notice period will be too short for the hotel to re-let the room, creating a recipe for disputes.

But, once again, we must beware of losing ourselves in detail while ignoring the big picture.

Hong Kong people need to travel outside the city and visitors need to be able to come here, all with minimum fuss and bother. We are a very long way from achieving that, and last week’s announcement does not bring us any closer. International connectivity is critical to Hong Kong’s future.

02:09

Hong Kong to shorten mandatory quarantine to 7 days for fully vaccinated residents, travellers

Hongkongers must be able to travel freely for a multitude of reasons. Our economy is internationally oriented – our entrepreneurs and businesspeople need to visit overseas markets to nurture relationships and find new opportunities.

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