Despite continued pressure from Hong Kong’s business community to relax border controls, the city’s outgoing chief executive signaled a high likelihood for hotel quarantine requirements to remain at least until July 1.
Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam said that the lifting of hotel quarantine requirements was «very unlikely» before a transition to successor John Lee, according to local media reports.
«It’s very unlikely that during my term there would be more relaxations on the border controls,» Lam said.
«In other words, we will still have the hotel quarantine. We will still require vaccination before a passenger can board a plane to Hong Kong and we will still impose the test and hold, whether at the airport or at a hotel, for a PCR test, in order to keep Hong Kong safe.»
Mainland Border
On July 1, Lee, who was the sole candidate for the top spot, will succeed Lam to lead Hong Kong on the 25th anniversary of the city’s handover from British to Chinese rule.
Hong Kong – alongside mainland Chinese cities like Shanghai – continues to face pressure from the business community to relax restrictions on cross-border movement.
Despite signs of continued restrictions with the international border, there are reports of planned proposals to relax controls for the border with mainland China under the so-called «closed loop» system – a bubble-like arrangement whereby workers are isolated to prevent Covid transmission.
