Crackdown on quarantine exemptions

Hong Kong will end most quarantine exemptions for overseas and mainland travelers soon to reopen the border with the mainland as early as possible, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor announced.

And authorities were quick to put Lam's words into actions to announce last night that patients who have recovered from Covid-19 must still undergo a 14-day isolation at a Lantau infection control center after being discharged from hospitals.

Similar post-discharge isolation is a usual practice in the mainland.

Under the new arrangement, which takes effect from today, authorities will send discharged patients from hospitals to the North Lantau Hospital Hong Kong Infection Control Centre for 14 days' isolation and medical surveillance.

"Point-to-point transportation will drive them to the designated site for isolation in a closed-loop management to ensure discharged patients do not bring the coronavirus into the community," a Food and Health Bureau statement said.

Symptomatic patients can only leave hospitals at least 10 days after their onset of illness and after two negative test results on samples taken at least 24 hours apart, as well as greatly alleviated symptoms and clearer chest scans. They must not have suffered from a fever within three days before discharge.

As for asymptomatic patients, they can be discharged as long as it has been 10 days after they were diagnosed with the infection and tested negative in two consecutive tests in samples taken 24 hours apart. As of yesterday, 50 Covid-19 patients were being treated at 11 public hospitals and the Infection Control Centre.

The center takes care of stable Covid-19 patients aged between 18 and 65. This means those who were initially admitted to the center will have to stay there for another fortnight even after they fulfill discharge requirements.

Six patients were allowed to go home from hospitals yesterday, making them the last batch to be able to walk free immediately after discharge. The SAR's tally was 12,331 yesterday, among whom 12,029 have been discharged.

Speaking to the media before the Executive Council meeting yesterday, Lam said the SAR will soon announce arrangements to remove exemptions that allow some people to skip mandatory quarantine to improve the chance that the mainland will allow easier cross-border travel with Hong Kong."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," she said.

"This is to give confidence to the central government that it is safe to reopen the border with us."

Currently, some travelers from overseas, such as senior finance executives, can avoid quarantine if the government considers their activities to be in the interests of Hong Kong's economic development.

Lam said it is still unknown when mainland and SAR experts will have a second meeting on border opening, but she said the goal for reopening is "the sooner the better."

She said the SAR submitted a report after the first meeting with mainland experts, ensuring the SAR's anti-epidemic measures are more in line with the mainland practices.

For example, the government has required all visitors at government buildings and offices, including hospitals, courts, public schools, libraries, sports grounds and police stations, to scan the LeaveHomeSafe QR code instead of writing down their personal details on paper.

The travel restrictions have brought problems to the economy and people's livelihoods, and the government hopes to resume cross-border travel with the mainland as soon as possible.

Lam said only a small number of people will be able to travel to the mainland without quarantine at the beginning. "We cannot return to the situation before the pandemic where people can go to the mainland through six or seven border control points easily."

In response to financial groups' worries that the strict quarantine measures will affect the city's status as a financial center, Lam said reopening the border with the mainland is still the SAR's priority and the chance of achieving it will be reduced if the city relaxes quarantine for overseas travelers or adopts the "living with the virus" strategy.

The turnaround came after Hollywood actress Nicole Kidman was allowed to skip quarantine when arriving in Hong Kong to film the Amazon series Expats in August. The government defended the exemption decision as "conducive to maintaining the necessary operation and development of Hong Kong's economy."

Kidman left the city in early September after she failed to adapt to the local filming environment and had a fight with the TV series' director, Chinese-American Lulu Wang Ziyi.