HK keeps flight ban, cuts quarantine by one week

Bloomberg

Hong Kong will shorten its quarantine requirement for inbound travelers by a week, but extended a ban on people coming from eight countries as a record number of infections stresses the city’s infrastructure.
The shorter quarantine period will begin from February 5, and will see travelers stay in a hotel for 14 days and then undertake seven days of self monitoring, Chief Executive Carrie Lam said at a briefing on Thursday. People will be able to go outside during that final week, but there are two days on which compulsory testing will be undertaken.
The ban on flights from locations including the US, UK, Australia and the Philippines will continue at least until Feb. 18 due to “raging Covid” cases in those locations, Lam said. All in-person school classes will remain suspended until Feb. 21 and social distancing measures — which include a ban on dining-in at restaurants after 6 p.m. and the closure of gyms and bars — will be extended by two weeks until Feb. 17.
“We are of course facing a serious challenge, but I hope the public will have confidence in us that the actions we’re taking are effective,” Lam said.
The moves come as the city struggles to stem a worsening outbreak that’s filling hospital beds and has put thousands of people into quarantine or lockdown. Authorities are pressing on with Covid-Zero ambitions despite the infectious-but-mild profile of the Omicron variant. Even after the shortening, Hong Kong’s travel quarantine remains one of the longest in the world as global peers like Singapore and London move toward co-existing with the virus.
The strict rules have angered the business community, who argue Hong Kong risks losing its status as a global financial hub. Its zero-tolerance approach to Covid-19 could keep the city cut off from most of the world until 2024 and fuel a large-scale exodus of international workers and executives, said a draft report by the European Chamber of Commerce.