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Coronavirus: Hong Kong’s John Lee receives preliminary nod for mainland ‘reverse quarantine’ scheme

  • Chief Executive John Lee says he held talks remotely with officials from Guangdong province and Shenzhen on cross-border travel plan
  • Thursday’s daily coronavirus tally hits 10,586 cases, marks first time Hong Kong has reached five-digit range since March 25.

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Travellers at Shenzhen Bay Port in Hong Kong head for mainland China. Photo: Dickson Lee

Hong Kong’s leader announced on Thursday that he had secured preliminary backing from mainland Chinese authorities for a “reverse quarantine” scheme allowing travellers to undergo isolation at designated facilities in the city first before heading across the border.

News that the scheme would proceed, enabling more Hongkongers to travel without having to worry about limited hotel quarantine quotas on the other side, came as the number of daily Covid-19 infections surged above 10,000 for the first time since late March – a level at which authorities have warned of a heavy burden on the city’s healthcare system.

Officials reported 10,586 infections on Thursday, including 244 imported cases, and 11 more deaths.

Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu was already warning that the daily infection tally posed a “serious threat” to public hospital services, as he gave details earlier in the day of talks he had held via videoconferencing with officials from Guangdong province and Shenzhen on a wide range of issues, including the reverse quarantine arrangement that Hong Kong was seeking.

Chief Executive John Lee has proposed allowing travellers heading to the mainland to quarantine in Hong Kong. Photo: Handout
Chief Executive John Lee has proposed allowing travellers heading to the mainland to quarantine in Hong Kong. Photo: Handout

Under the proposal, a makeshift Covid-19 treatment facility at the Lok Ma Chau Loop, an area near the border, could offer several thousand rooms to quarantine travellers before they head to the mainland.

“In this proposal … for people who wish to travel to the mainland, after doing this quarantine [in Hong Kong], they will be regarded as having fulfilled the ‘7+3’ requirement of the mainland,” he told a press conference.

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