Hotel quarantine reduction to be decided by govt in August, sources say

The SAR government is expected to make a decision in August on reducing the hotel quarantine for inbound travelers to three or five days from the original one week of isolation, according to sources.

It was understood that authorities are currently working on details of the plan to facilitate its execution.

Commenting on the news, the manager of the Federation of Hong Kong Hotel Owners, Chan, said authorities have yet to make contact with the trade regarding any plans to reduce the hotel quarantine.

She believed that inbound travelers will still have to go into isolation for seven days even if their hotel quarantine period has been shortened, with those days replaced with home quarantine.  

Meanwhile, Timothy Chui Ting-pong, executive director of the Hong Kong Tourism Association, said the government must plan well the arrangement for people after they leave their quarantine hotels, including how to enforce medical surveillance.  

He also said the government should introduce the red and yellow color-coded pass function on the LeaveHomeSafe app before announcing the quarantine reduction.  

Authorities previously said they would give a red code to people who are infected and yellow to arrivals from overseas under medical surveillance.