As per top advisor, Hong Kong will reopen within the year
Key takeaways:
- According to the city's top advisor to chief executive Carrie Lam on Tuesday, the Hong Kong government expects to lift Covid-induced restrictions within the next year.
- The city has restricted air travel from eight countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, as part of its zero-tolerance pandemic strategy.
As the city races to vaccinate its entire population, the Hong Kong government is expected to lift Covid-induced restrictions within the next year, according to the city's top advisor to chief executive Carrie Lam on Tuesday.
"We all want to finish this thing as early as we can," Bernard Chan said during a television interview with Bloomberg.
Chan is "very optimistic" that Hong Kong's Covid restrictions will be lifted once the financial hub has a "fully vaccinated community" and more knowledge of the highly transmissible variant Omicron.
Hong Kong is a People's Republic of China Special Administrative Region (SAR). Since the beginning of the pandemic in 2019, the city has implemented some of the strictest border controls in the world to prevent new outbreaks.
Under its zero-tolerance pandemic strategy, the city has restricted air travel from eight nations, including the US and the United Kingdom. In addition, new residents must undergo a 14-day quarantine period. In addition, Chan stated that the government's "next objective" is to reduce quarantine for inbound travelers.
However, it has avoided a Chinese-style lockdown to combat the current wave of the virus, which Omicron leads. "I don't believe we'll ever be able to go into full lockdown," he stated. "It's just not possible in Hong Kong." According to a Bloomberg report, Chan stated, "We cannot have the same kind of lockdown that you see on the mainland."
Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, an elderly man who tested positive for Covid-19 died at a city hospital on Tuesday. The first death in the last five months could have been linked to the virus.
The 73-year-old patient had been diagnosed with a chronic illness and had tested positive for Covid throughout hospital admission screening. It was unclear whether his death would be the 214th Covid death in Hong Kong, as preliminary positive cases must undergo additional testing before being classified as positive.
Since the pandemic, the city has reported around 16,600 infections, one of the least caseloads in other similar cities worldwide.