HK May Scrap Hotel Quarantines Soon

Will more people come to HK if they can monitor at home?

Hong Kong continues to take the tiniest baby steps to open up and is now mulling the idea of scrapping hotel quarantines and having people monitor themselves and avoid crowded places and restaurants for seven days at home.

It is believed Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu was going to announce this during his policy address, but now it seems this plan will be pushed forward to later this month.

Lee's announcement is being moved up

The city logged 7,322 cases and they are going down, including the number of imported infections at 132. There are also suggestions of scrapping travelers having negative PCR tests 48 hours before boarding since they are tested upon arrival.

This would be immensely helpful as it is getting harder to find places around the world to have these PCR tests done, not to mention the exorbitant cost.

The Centre for Health Protection reported there was no spike in cases following the Mid-Autumn Festival that was previously feared, though the number of cases is still around 8,000 a day.

In November the Hong Kong government plans to host an international banking summit and the infamous Rugby Sevens tournament, which is why health experts are suggesting scrapping the hotel quarantine now because no high-flying banker will have time for seven days in a hotel, three of which are in solitary confinement followed by not being able to eat in a restaurant for four days.

One of these experts is Kelvin To Kai-wang, chairman of the University of Hong Kong's department of microbiology.

"There is a higher chance of having severe infection cases in the winter," To said. "It is better to let more people come to Hong Kong in autumn. At least it could lower the burden on the medical sector in the winter."

Hui suggests "0+7"... will the government buy it?

Meanwhile Dr David Hui Shu-cheong says Hong Kong should implement the "0+7" scheme and the incoming travelers should wear electronic tracking wristbands to prevent them from breaking the rules, though he added the vast number of infections are local.

The city should really scrap quarantine altogether, but it doesn't seem to realise that the rest of the world has moved on. Hesitating on hosting major sporting events is not helping with the revitalisation of the city.

But this is what it has come to, a government hamstrung by various stakeholders, not following the science but political influence instead.

China may not even begin to open up until sometime in 2023... does this mean Hong Kong will have a similar timeline too?