One small step for Hong Kong? Health experts suggest fewer Covid tests but extended tracking for travellers, citing success of rival Singapore
- Infectious disease specialist, a former chairman of key WHO network, says quarantine rule has ‘questionable benefits’
- But not all health experts agree on exact direction Hong Kong should take with its travel rules
Hong Kong should sharply reduce the number of Covid-19 tests arrivals are required to take and rely on the vaccine pass scheme to track their movements if it launches quarantine-free travel, health experts have suggested, with some arguing regional rival Singapore has shown how measures can be gradually and safely eased.
Health minister Lo Chung-mau revealed over the weekend the government was “actively considering” scrapping hotel quarantine for travellers given decreasing infection numbers, which fell to 6,260 on Monday, the lowest in a month. Another 10 deaths related to the virus were also logged.
Characterising Singapore’s evolving approach as “gradually peeling things off”, Professor Dale Fisher, former chair of the steering committee of the World Health Organization’s Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network, said Hong Kong should follow the city state’s lead and rethink its screening regime for travellers.
“When you’ve got 7,000 or more home-grown cases every day and imported cases are few [in Hong Kong], you’re paying a big price for something with questionable benefit,” he said, referring to the quarantine rule. “You can just have one or two tests. Some people still sneak through, but you’re going for sort of a soft landing.”
Fisher, a senior infectious diseases consultant at Singapore’s National University Hospital, suggested requiring arrivals only be tested upon entry and just once more three days later. Of the latest infections, 174 were imported.