Hong Kong introduced on Monday that it could raise its ban on flights from 9 nations on April 1, simply one of many restrictions it plans to loosen up as consultants and authorities officers say the worst of an Omicron-driven wave may need handed.
Hong Kong’s chief, Carrie Lam, mentioned on Monday that vaccinated residents would solely need to quarantine for seven days, down from 14, upon arrival from abroad. The isolation for vacationers had been one of many strictest on this planet and had discouraged many from returning to the Chinese territory of seven.4 million folks.
She additionally suspended plans to have each individual within the metropolis bear P.C.R. testing and moved up a deadline to obtain booster pictures to May 31. The additional dose shall be essential to enter public locations, together with supermarkets and purchasing malls.
For many of the pandemic, Hong Kong has sealed itself off from the remainder of the world and required vacationers to quarantine for so long as three weeks in a lodge, mirroring insurance policies in mainland China.
Then, because the Omicron variant unfold quickly the world over early this 12 months, the federal government banned flights from the United States, Australia, Britain, Canada, France, India, Nepal, Pakistan and the Philippines in an try and preserve virus numbers near zero. When flights resume from these 9 nations in April, solely vaccinated residents shall be eligible to return.
Even although the brand new measures stay a number of the strictest on this planet, Hong Kong’s strategy seems to be diverging barely from that of mainland China. Two of China’s largest cities, Shanghai and Shenzhen, stay in lockdown, and tens of millions of residents there are required to bear P.C.R. testing in an effort to deliver case numbers again to zero.
More than 5,000 folks have died from Covid in Hong Kong, and a couple of million circumstances have been recorded since January. Researchers estimate that just about half of the town might have been contaminated by the virus.
The lifting of flight bans comes on the behest of consultants, together with Gabriel Leung, dean of the University of Hong Kong, who mentioned final month that residents are extra susceptible to an infection from neighborhood transmissions than from imported circumstances.
The Hong Kong authorities has lurched from one coverage to a different in tackling the fast-moving Omicron outbreak. Mrs. Lam, the town’s chief, mentioned Monday that she would droop plans for necessary Covid testing, weeks after rumors of a concurrent lockdown triggered waves of panic shopping for and an exodus from the town.
Schools had been closed for an early “summer holiday” in February, partly as a result of officers deliberate to make use of campuses for mass testing websites. Mrs. Lam mentioned there was not a “road map” to conduct mass testing with the outbreak nonetheless raging, however she wouldn’t rule out that choice sooner or later.