Sources said the plan would likely be unveiled this month and before a policy address on Oct 19 to provide a “road map” for the city ahead of November’s Hong Kong Sevens rugby tournament and an international banking conference after a growing outcry from politicians and business chambers.
Under the plan, travellers will no longer need to quarantine in a hotel but will instead undergo seven days of self-monitoring, the sources said.
The city, which has some of the world’s strictest coronavirus measures along with mainland China, currently has a three-day hotel quarantine for overseas travellers who are then required to undergo four subsequent days of restrictions that forbid eating in restaurants.
Hong Kong’s hotel quarantine was once three weeks but was reduced in stages since the city was hit by its worst outbreak earlier this year.
An implementation date for ending the quarantine has not been decided, sources say.
Medical experts say a pre-arrival PCR test requirement should also be scrapped while medical surveillance could be relaxed “in line with the international trend”.
“There is now little risk differential between Hong Kong and the rest of the world in daily incidence and profile of variant,” said respiratory expert Leung Chi Chiu.
Over the weekend, secretary for health Lo Chung Mau said that the government was considering scrapping the hotel quarantine.
Politicians have been lamenting Hong Kong’s position as an international hub in the face of regional rival Singapore opening up with the rest of the world and as the city faces an exodus of residents and expatriates.
“Our competitiveness comes from the ability to connect with the world,” pro-Beijing legislator Edward Leung Hei told Nikkei today.
“Early border clearance plays an important role in the development of Hong Kong.”
While Hong Kong is on track to host the rugby showcase and fintech conference in November, ditching the hotel quarantine could further boost the city’s international standing after the World Dragon Boat Racing Championships and Hong Kong Marathon were both cancelled due to uncertainties over coronavirus measures.
The city’s economy has also been battered by coronavirus headwinds, with GDP growth forecasts slashed and warnings of a recession.
Hong Kong’s “financial situation of this year could be worse than expected,” financial secretary Paul Chan said in his blog yesterday, noting the city was on track for its second worst budget deficit, one topping HK$100 billion.
Last week, the city said arriving travellers who test positive for the respiratory illness can stay in their quarantine hotels instead of being transferred to an isolation facility.
In another sign that Hong Kong’s hotel confinement is set to be removed, quarantine rules for locally based airline crew have been scrapped.
Coronavirus measures are still in place, however, including mandatory mask wearing and a prohibition on public gatherings of more than four.