Hong Kong reported over 4,100 new Covid infections yesterday amid warnings that daily counts could eventually surpass 10,000 cases.

Contrary to the panic gripping the city at the start of the fifth wave, people seem to have largely got used to living with the numbers without being in a state of fear.

Apparently, the city has reached a new milestone in its pandemic fight.

Yesterday, The Standard's sister paper Sing Tao Daily carried a report saying the government was expected to shorten hotel quarantine for international travelers from seven days to either five days at a quarantine hotel plus two days of restriction outside hotel or four days in a hotel plus three days of restriction.

According to the report, a decision is expected within one or two weeks.

No matter which plan is adopted, people finishing their hotel quarantine will be given a yellow health code to restrict their movements for the rest of the specified period.

It is not yet absolutely clear if people who have completed the shortened hotel quarantine would have to self isolate at home or whether they would be free to go out but not allowed to visit certain premises, including restaurants, where customers are allowed to remove their masks.

But any small step in the direction of enabling the public to resume normal living is to be welcomed.

Of the two options - "five-plus-two" or "four-plus-three" - the second would be preferred since it would at least be one day closer to relatively normal living.

Hopefully, the shortening is only another step down the road, with more easing steps to follow until all quarantine and social distancing restrictions are lifted.

Signs have been promising even though development has been regrettably slow.

Just the day before, four local medical experts, including Yuen Kwok-yung and David Hui-cheong, took the lead to advocate a need to shift our current pandemic policy to one of mixed immunity that is currently the most common strategy practiced in the world. Mixed immunity is not a new concept. Whether it's called mixed immunity, herd immunity or even living with the virus, it means the same thing.

Were all these sensitive phrases in use during the preceding months? Back then, it would still have been impossible and politically incorrect for anyone in or near the establishment to publicly advocate such a policy shift.

That several of the city's best-known experts - as well as former Hospital Authority chief Leung Pak-yin - have spoken up to stress the need to face the reality that Covid won't disappear from the world could be a sign.

It is hoped that Secretary for Health Lo Chung-mau will heed their calls and bring the policy up to date with a view to creating an exit roadmap.

Executive Council convenor Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee mentioned the other day that Hong Kong may have no choice but to open its international borders to normal travel before its borders with the mainland.

Despite her pledge to uphold Exco confidentiality, could Ip be hinting that normal international travel will resume sooner rather than later?

Lo Chung-mau

Time to step ahead without fear