Topic
Latest news and updates about discussions to create travel bubbles between Hong Kong and destinations where residents have been vaccinated, which would allow possible exemptions from quarantine. Hong Kong and Singapore agreed in principle to form a travel bubble late last year but it was postponed.
As long as health procedures are followed and anti-Covid measures taken, Royal Caribbean should be allowed to resume its ‘cruises to nowhere’ from the city.
Core features of antivirus strategy, including flight bans, school suspensions, quarantine rules and planned mass testing exercise, will be reconsidered.
Hong Kong’s elderly should have been first in line to get vaccinated but repeated calls fell on deaf ears – until, that is, a restaurant ban was announced. If only authorities had realised that sooner, Hong Kong would be in a much better position to deal with Omicron.
It is still not entirely clear whether they can go out and about or are confined to their rooms because of Covid-19 when they fly between locations.
As Hong Kong marks more than 21 days with no local Covid-19 infections, the question is when will quarantine-free travel be able to resume?
Even mainland China and Macau are shunning visitors from Hong Kong because of the low take-up rate for Covid-19 vaccines
The scheme, first introduced in 2017, has been troubled from the start because of excessive red tape; to survive, something has to change.
- Residents and arrivals infected with Covid-19 will be allowed to leave isolation on the fifth day if they test negative for two days in a row beforehand
- Hong Kong reports 14,373 new coronavirus infections on Thursday, the highest since March 19
Chairwoman of the Travel Industry Council hails move a “good start” in attracting tourists to the city.
Hong Kong districts with shrinking student populations have registered the biggest declines in home rents since January 2020, showing the ‘negative and lasting’ impact of a net outflow of people.
Ovolo Hotels founder Girish Jhunjhnuwala says that Hong Kong must allow restriction-free travel as the rest of the world has. In the meantime, he is plotting the group’s expansion in Asia-Pacific and Europe.
Known as the “grand old dame”, The Peninsula Hong Kong has withstood several tumultuous periods throughout its more than 90-year history. But the Covid-19 pandemic is the toughest challenge the iconic hotel and its operator have faced yet, a top executive said.
Readers discuss private hospitals’ response to the pandemic, and arrangements for the city’s university entrance exams.
For the 320 licensed hotels in one of Asia’s busiest hubs for business travel and tourism, Hong Kong’s zero-Covid approach may sound the death knell for an industry that hired as many as 34,606 people last September.
Paris and other European cities dominate the list compiled by Euromonitor International, owing to their more relaxed travel policies amid the pandemic.
International asset managers and banks urge Financial Secretary Paul Chan to provide a road map of how the city plans to resume normal operations like other financial centres.
Readers argue against fixating on quarantine-free travel to the mainland, worry that Hong Kong’s prolonged isolation hurts its economy and reputation, and urge the government to explain the deeper reasons behind the current quarantine policy.
Government adviser says city can look into Macau’s system with mainland China, where quarantine-free travel is stopped if one Covid-19 infection is found in the community.
The president of Genting Cruise Lines, currently the only operator for such trips, says 20,000 people have taken part in the cruises since the end of July.
Hong Kong’s sudden change to quarantine rules has left travellers stranded around the world. Four returning travellers share their horror stories trying to rearrange flights and hotels.
Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan says Hongkongers have expectation of government to keep city Covid-19 free, and approach of other places is not compatible with goal of ‘zero infections’.
Contrasting tactics for dealing with the coronavirus crisis were the downfall of plans for bilateral quarantine-free travel, Hong Kong government says.
The return of more stringent travel restrictions in Hong Kong is likely to weigh on the city’s battered hotels sector, which is likely to record among the slowest recoveries in Asia, analysts said.
Outgoing Japanese Consul General Mitsuhiro Wada called for an easing of border restrictions in the Greater Bay Area and said Tokyo’s stance is that Hong Kong ‘develops in a democratic and stable manner’.
Readers discuss the Olympics games, Covid-19 hardships in Hong Kong and the mainland, and Chinese reactions to the call for baby-boosting slogans.
As more Hongkongers are vaccinated, there is an argument to be made for shifting away from a zero-Covid stance to flexible policies that encourage economic recovery.
At a ceremony, commerce minister Edward Yau Tang-wah called the inaugural voyage ‘a step forward in bringing back normality’.
