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There are strong grounds to shorten quarantine for overseas arrivals, with details to be announced next week, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said on Thursday.
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In a morning press conference, Lam said the government will announce next week the latest anti-epidemic measures to last until April 20.
As the government is already allowing the vaccinated who caught Covid-19 to finish their isolation if they test negative on the seventh day of their infection, it is reasonable to adjust the policy for overseas arrivals accordingly, she said.
Authorities are still looking into the issue and will make an announcement soon, she added.
The CE said social distancing measures announced in mid-February are supposed to last until April 20. But she found it necessary to make further adjustments due to substantial changes regarding the pandemic this month.
While infection numbers are still on a plateau, she felt that people have become increasingly intolerant to anti-epidemic policies. Financial companies are also losing their patience over Hong Kong's strict controls.
The government will make sure the controls will be a balance of public health and the economy and citizens' level of tolerance, she said.
Hong Kong currently bans arrivals from nine countries, including Australia, Canada, France, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The policy will last until April 20.
As for Hong Kong residents who visited other overseas countries, only fully vaccinated people are allowed to return, they must undergo compulsory quarantine for 14 days in a designated quarantine hotel.
This comes after a returnee voiced her frustrations to the Standard about Hong Kong forcing international arrivals to do14-day hotel quarantine when most Covid patients and close contacts are now allowed to go free after seven days of home isolation.
The British expat in her early 40s, who identifies herself as Jean, was last week undergoing quarantine at a hotel on Hong Kong Island for HK$1,000 a day after going to the UK in early December for a Christmas family visit.
"Perhaps the Hong Kong government is so overwhelmed with the current situation it has forgotten to consider its people who are stuck overseas and wanting to return?" she asked.
"Why, when close contacts of the people who have contracted the virus are now being asked to self-isolate at home for seven days instead of 14?"
On the other hand, Hospital Authority chief executive Tony Ko Pat-sing said the number of people waiting for hospitalization at accident and emergency departments of public hospitals has dropped from a peak of 1,800 to 600 recently. Those with serious conditions have been admitted to wards.
There is still a vacancy for quotas reserved at designated Covid clinics for those in high-risk groups, including the elderly, he said.
A Covid oral drug Molnupiravir has already been prescribed to 6,000 people, while the other drug Paxlovid has been used on more than 100 people, he added.
