July 5, 2022
HONG KONG – The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is discussing the possibility of limited quarantine-free travel with the Chinese mainland, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said on Sunday.
He told the media that for quarantine-free travel with the mainland and Macao to resume, it’s necessary for Hong Kong to have its pandemic situation well under control by reducing the number of infections and enhancing testing.
Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said it’s not necessary to conduct mass city-wide testing as the compulsory tests ordered so far have succeeded in controlling the outbreak
Hong Kong recorded 1,841 new COVID-19 cases on Monday — a slight increase from Sunday’s 1,828 infections. There had been more than 2,000 confirmed cases daily for four consecutive days preceding July 3.
Lee said it’s not necessary to conduct mass city-wide testing as the compulsory tests ordered so far have succeeded in controlling the outbreak.
As for travel arrangements between Hong Kong and the international community, Lee said resuming quarantine-free travel with both the mainland and the world is what the SAR government aims to do and there’s no mutual exclusion.
Hong Kong will strive for more precise anti-pandemic work to minimize inconvenience to the public, he said.
Regarding hotel quarantine arrangements for inbound visitors, Lee said there are no plans at present to change the hotel quarantine period from seven days to five days, with two extra days at home, as the government still needs to study the situation.