Five days or less Lo's quarantine target

Hong Kong will try to shorten the hotel quarantine period to five days or less for overseas arrivals with a "closed-loop journey" and home quarantine, incoming health secretary Lo Chung-mau says.

A closed-loop journey entails travelers to only go to places they have scheduled beforehand on their itinerary.

Lo - talking on radio a day after incoming chief executive John Lee Ka-chiu said he will strive to relax quarantine curbs - said he will roll out measures to relax restrictions on travelers once he assumes office next month.

"Only 1 percent of inbound travelers were carrying the coronavirus," Lo said. "As long as the government can identify Covid patients as quickly as possible, authorities can shorten the hotel quarantine period to five days or less."

The speed, quantity and accuracy of PCR tests also need to be stepped up for the relaxation to work, he said.

Lo said it is not a policy shift from the anti-Covid approach as the virus still threatens the lives of the elderly and the chronically ill.

"The government has the responsibility to protect people's lives and health, but we will roll out more measures to make lives more convenient and allow economic development to resume normally under a precise prevention of infection," Lo said.

"If the number of infections continues to rise, it may cause the public hospital service to collapse. The next government will continue to cut down the number of infections."

Lo said the policies differ among regions and Hong Kong and the mainland's standard of the virus test will have to be unified before reopening borders.

Lee told a newspaper that he will prioritize his work on reopening the borders between Hong Kong and the mainland as well as the rest of the world, possibly by reducing the period required to undergo mandatory quarantine for travelers.

Executive Council member Jeffrey Lam Kin-fung from the Business and Professionals Alliance said the seven-day mandatory quarantine is still an obstacle for travelers as other countries have already lifted their quarantine period.

The chief executive of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, George Leung Siu-kay, said the long quarantine period is a huge headache for retaining expertise.

"It has weakened Hong Kong's competitiveness," Leung added.

Lee also said he is planning to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in November in Bangkok with the intention of promoting Hong Kong - despite being sanctioned by the United States for implementing the national security law two years ago.

He added that being placed under sanctions will not stop him from promoting the city overseas. Lee said he will also send delegations overseas to fight other countries' effort to spread fear against Hong Kong.

Political commentator Lau Siu-kai said the United States and other Western countries may hinder Lee taking part in the summit.

"But Thailand is in a friendly relationship with China, so I do not think it will follow any request made by the United States," Lau said.

michael.shum@singtaonewscorp.com