Hong Kong has dropped nearly all of its remaining Covid-19 restrictions and scrapped mandatory testing for arrivals as the city aims to revive its pandemic-hit economy and catch up with Beijing’s abrupt exit from zero-Covid.
John Lee, that of Hong Kong the chief executive, announced on Wednesday that travelers would no longer be required to take PCR tests on arrival from Thursday, and would only have to show proof of a rapid negative antigen test. A ban on gatherings of more than 12 people will also be dropped, though the city’s outdoor mask mandate will remain.
“I want to tell the world… Hong Kong is completely normal now,” Lee told a news conference.
Close contacts of positive Covid cases will no longer be required to isolate at home or quarantine in government facilities, ending what some have described as the “brutal” experience to be trapped in government centers.
The Chinese territory had imposed some of the strictest restrictions in the world to control the virusincluding mandatory quarantines which at one point lasted up to three weeks and a policy of separating Covid-positive children from their parents, measures which have raised concern among expatriate residents and businesses as well as residents.
Hong Kong only dropped the hotel quarantine for overseas arrivals in September and has gradually lifting other social restrictions, Like those targeting bars and restaurants this month. Residents will no longer need to display proof of vaccination to enter these places from Thursday.
More than 140,000 members of Hong Kong workforce gone For the past two years, driven out by the pandemic regime as well as a nationwide crackdown from Beijing that has crushed the city’s civil liberties.
Gary Ng, senior economist at Natixis, said the territory could see an economic rebound after the easing of restrictions, forecasting gross domestic product growth of 3.5% to 4% in 2023, after an expected contraction of 3, 2% this year.
“It takes time to see the real impact of reopening borders,” he said, adding that first-quarter economic data could remain discouraging.
Real estate services firm Savills Hong Kong has estimated that retail rents could increase by up to 5% in 2023, as Chinese and overseas travelers gradually return.
Hong Kong’s latest easing came after China this month ended a centralized government quarantine for Covid patients and announced this week it would drop the isolation of incoming travelers next month, even as that it was battling its biggest pandemic outbreak.
Tens of millions of people are catching the virus every day in China, where hospitals have been overwhelmed by a surge of elderly patients and authorities have stopped publishing daily Covid case counts.
“When the government has decided on a change in policy to live with the virus, these measures will have to be abandoned at some point,” said Leo Poon, head of the division of public health laboratory sciences at the University of Hong Kong.
Hong Kong would also start reopening its border with the mainland in stages from Jan. 15, Lee said, a week after China dropped its inbound quarantine requirement. Cross-border activity has been at a standstill for three years, stifling the territory’s economy.
More than 2.5 million of Hong Kong’s population of 7.4 million had caught the virus, Lee said, meaning the city would be able to manage the risks from its previous exposure. Hong Kong had its worst outbreak this spring, when it recorded the highest death rate in the world. Cases have remained high since, with the city reporting 19,689 new local cases and 59 deaths Wednesday for the day before.
Some health experts and lawmakers have called on Hong Kong to drop its mask rule, following the model of Singapore, Taiwan and Japan.
But Health Secretary Lo Chung-mau insisted the mask requirement would protect residents “from influenza and other respiratory tract infections” and would remain in place until the end of the winter wave.
“We balance the benefits against the costs,” he said.
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