Hong Kong tightens quarantine rules in bid to open China border

Hong Kong will soon end most of the quarantine exemptions for overseas and mainland travelers, with the city under pressure from officials in Beijing to tighten up what is already one of the world’s strictest Covid-19 containment regimes.   

Speaking at a weekly press briefing, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor told reporters that the city will soon announce arrangements to remove exemptions that allow some people to skip mandatory hotel quarantine stays of as long as 21 days, to improve the chance that China will allow easier cross-border travel.

“In relation to exempted groups of quarantine-free personnel, most of these will be removed -- we will only leave those relating to emergency services or services relating to the everyday supply and logistics of Hong Kong, say for example cross-boundary truck drivers,” Lam said. “This is to give confidence to the central authorities that it is safe to open the border.”

Lam also said she’s not worried that the city’s quarantine measures are harming the city’s reputation as a global financial hub, even as businesses express rising concern about the frustrating measures that have separated families and forced even fully-vaccinated residents to spend upwards of three weeks confined to small hotel rooms.