Hong Kong’s strict quarantine measures cause a furor among business persons: WSJ

Business groups believe that Hong Kong’s strict COVID-19 protocols threaten its status as an international business center.

Hong Kong has imposed one of the world’s toughest quarantine regimes, confining visitors from other countries to a hotel room for as long as three weeks.

Even as the COVID-19 cases have been controlled via this method, business groups in the city have said that the economic cost is too high and risks the city’s status as one of the world’s top financial centers. The city’s residents say that the restrictions prevent them from visiting sick relatives abroad or getting their children back from overseas schools and colleges.

In an open letter to Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s chief executive, the European Chamber of Commerce said the rules could lead many in the international community to question “if they want to remain indefinitely trapped in Hong Kong when the rest of the world is moving on.”

The Wall Street Journal reported that despite the strict protocols the Hong Kong administration allowed Hollywood star Nicole Kidman to skip quarantine after she arrived from Australia to film an Amazon drama series. Officials said the show was an economic boost for the city. This action fueled local anger as many travelers around that time had to cancel trips to or from the city or suffer the cost and time of a hotel stay—if they could find a room—after the government increased restrictions for arrivals from 15 countries including the U.S., France, Brazil, India, and Switzerland.

The city has recorded nearly 12,000 confirmed cases and 200 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic. Its total population is around 7.5 million. It has recorded two locally transmitted infections in the past four weeks.

Businesspersons from the U.S. who want to get to the city for work are flooding the office of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong with calls, worried about the costs of staying in hotels, and some who are stuck in any of the 15 countries mentioned in the list.

Public health experts have mandated that quarantine for more than 14 days is unnecessary. Businesspersons are demanding less stringent rules such as allowing home quarantine instead of expensive hotel stays.

Picture Credits: Financial Times

With inputs from Wall Street Journal