HK to End Mandatory Covid-19 Isolation

Lee told lawmakers Thursday HK to end mandatory isolation

Hong Kong is buzzing with the news that from January 30, people who are infected with Covid-19 no longer have to undergo mandatory isolation for five days.

It's after the Year of the Rabbit has started, but it's still good news.

Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu told lawmakers that the quarantine mandate for hospitals, government facilities and patients' homes had been in force for nearly three years and it would be lifted.

"The government should shift from clear-cut management to one that allows citizens to make decisions and take responsibility for themselves," he said.

"This important step is based on science and risk assessment. This is a necessary stage for all countries in their paths to normality... Hong Kong has walked to this stage already."

The order will be lifted after CNY starts

He said the decision was made as Hong Kong has a high infection and vaccination rate, and that the city's infection rate had not worsened after the border with China was lifted two weeks ago.

More than 93 percent of Hong Kong residents have two doses of the vaccine, 84 percent have had a booster. 

Amazingly he said the city should treat Covid-19 like any other respiratory disease under the new normal.

Gasp!

Then why are people still forced to wear masks? And forced to do PCR tests before crossing the border into the mainland?

But Lee said he is working with mainland officials to end the PCR test and asked for patience. 

Cross-border students will finally be able to use RAT tests to be able to go to school as early as next month.

These units will be even more useless soon

While mainlanders are coming into Hong Kong, it's not in the droves that people feared.

Word has it that the well-heeled ones are quietly coming into the city, laying low for a few days or weeks before going to their final destination -- overseas.

The main reason is that there aren't many flights going overseas from China; in Hong Kong there is a greater choice and frequency, though they will still need to show PCR tests taken 48 hours before they fly.

So with no more mandatory isolation, those thousands of isolation units hastily built all over the city are going to be even more of an eyesore...