August 2022 - HK Covid News & Issues

[shri]

May be we'll get something in the next 48 hours.

It is learnt that Chief Executive Li Ka-chiu will convene the Steering and Co-ordinating Group on Epidemic Response under his supervision today to further discuss the relaxation of the quarantine period and the application of the "red and yellow codes". According to sources, the Medical and Health Bureau may give an account of the nucleic acid test data recently collected from hotel quarantinees at today's meeting, so as to help Li to decide whether to adopt the "5+2" or "4+3" option, while the Innovation and Technology Bureau will also give an account of the trial run of the latest "My Home Sweet Travel" application.

https://std.stheadline.com/realtime/article/1860653/

[FrancisX]

Just returned to HK. The long line for the flight back at Istanbul airport became a mini tourist attraction - people taking photos/videos of everyone masked up, including a few in hazmat suits . Masks weren't even mandatory on the flight. What a laughing stock we've become. Felt like I was reentering another world. Once stuck in 2020.

A few people not allowed on the flight due to PCR test being timed to their first flight rather than the connection. Got me thinking, who would willingly go through this carry on just to visit/do business here? And that's not even taking into consideration the forced QT.

On the positive side, getting through the airport was quick, friendly and flawless (if you have everything prepared). From touch down to hotel shuttle bus in less than one hour. Lots of walking needed though.

[HongKong_Great]

https://www.dimsumdaily.hk/health-co...nnounced-soon/

So basically if 4+3 days it means hotel quarantine for 4 days in the hotel and the remaining 3 days should do the nucleic acid test and can go back to work? Still no tourist will come to HK.

[Gatts]

https://www.dimsumdaily.hk/health-co...nnounced-soon/

So basically if 4+3 days it means hotel quarantine for 4 days in the hotel and the remaining 3 days should do the nucleic acid test and can go back to work? Still no tourist will come to HK.

Please don't quote a rag like dimsumdaily. The remaning days would mean home quarantine.

[Matt30]

4,5 days in hotel quarantine + 3,2 days in home quarantine. If my math is correct, that means there is still a 7 day quarantine period. Who on earth would visit HK as a tourist if they had to do a 7 day quarantine?

[traineeinvestor]

It's not 1st April is it?

"... former Hospital Authority chief executive Leung Pak-yin said, as he eyed resuming quarantine-free travel overseas in the next month or two."

https://www.thestandard.com.hk/break...r-health-chief

[pin]

May be we'll get something in the next 48 hours.



https://std.stheadline.com/realtime/article/1860653/

the farce continues.

[Baklava]

the farce continues.

The farce is strong with these ones

[shri]

It's not 1st April is it?

"... former Hospital Authority chief executive Leung Pak-yin said, as he eyed resuming quarantine-free travel overseas in the next month or two."

The cynically optimistic person in me says ... lines up with the coronation.

[Cheeky Kiwi]

Except that it may last for years because it works for Bro Xi:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/featu...&sref=w8Wy1knr


Yet so far Xi is unmoved. In fact, he’s doubling down.


In a recent address from Wuhan heavy with symbolism, Xi repudiated the West’s embrace of “herd immunity,” saying the consequences of lying flat against the virus would be unimaginable for China.

“Even if there are some temporary impacts on the economy, we will not put people's lives and health in harm's way,” he said in June in the city where Covid first emerged. “The epidemic response measures,” he added, “are correct and effective, and must be upheld unwaveringly.”


Coming after China reduced the number of days travelers need to spend in quarantine, the comments jolted financial markets. Reinforced a month later by the Politburo, the Communist Party’s top leadership, the unequivocal commitment to Covid Zero has led to a reassessment for some who expected the country to reopen once Xi secured a third term at the once-in-five-year Party congress due to be held later in 2022.


Covid Zero will remain in place for at least another year because it’s now inextricably tied to Xi, said Joerg Wittke, president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, during a July 20 webinar sponsored by the Peterson Institute.

“My guess is China can at the earliest open up late 2023,” he said. Officials “are in a deep hole and they keep digging.”

...

“It appears to us that any change in the zero-Covid policy will only happen when authorities are convinced that mutations are less virulent and vaccines and medicines are proven to be more effective,” they wrote. “Both are unlikely to happen in the near term.”