Lam Drops Hotel Quarantine to 14 Days

Lam announces hotel quarantines will be reduced to 14 days

Today Hong Kong recorded a record 164 Covid-19 cases, the most logged in a single day since the pandemic began in January 2020. There is now a new cluster in Wong Tai Sin.

It was not surprising then that Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor announced that social-distancing measures would continue until February 17, while in-person classes will be suspended until February 21.

One bright spot was that travellers coming back to Hong Kong would only need to do hotel quarantine for two weeks and then one week at home starting from February 5. 

A record number of 164 cases logged today

The decision to shorten the quarantine period came after persistent complaints from travellers and companies paying high quarantine costs for employees.

Currently Hong Kong residents who return to Hong Kong must undergo quarantine for 21 days in designated hotels, while those arriving from countries with serious Covid issues like the United States must first quarantine for four days at Penny's Bay before completing the rest of the quarantine in a hotel.

Finally today a tycoon spoke out about the tough measures the government has implemented in a bid to have a "zero-Covid" goal, saying the restrictions were seriously impacting businesses. 

Ronnie Chan, chairman of Hang Lung Properties has read reports that the Omicron variant is much like the influenza, and should be treated as such.

"It seems Omicron is going in the direction of becoming flu-like. It is possible to consider how the policy needs to progress. There may be a need to study the possibility of a change," he said on Thursday.

Chan said the current zero-Covid policy would make sense if the virus caused a high percentage of deaths. He said an approach based on building herd immunity would be "fine" if the current wave of infections does prove similar to influenza.

Chan calls for easing of social-distancing 

Hang Lung is the first Hong Kong developer to openly call for a change in Covid-19 policy.

Chan said the city is "in a difficult situation". It is "stuck in the middle", between the need for people to cross the border with mainland China freely, and the desire to align with other countries.

"Of course, Hong Kong is a big international city. So we need to align with the world," he said. "The fact that the staff of big companies [have not been] able to return to Hong Kong without [undergoing a quarantine of] three weeks, is extremely difficult to accept in terms of commercial sense."

When will other tycoons start voicing their opinions as well? Surely they are tired of being stuck in their mansions on The Peak and want a chance of scenery like the rest of us?

Seems that Lam did listen to him and shorten the hotel quarantine time, but it is still 21 days for no specific scientific reason, when Omicron can be detected within the first few days.

In any event, the 15 days of Chinese New Year are completely cancelled, and Valentine's Day too.

The Year of the Tiger will not be off to a roaring start... will we have better news after the Winter Olympics are over?

One can only hope.