Hong Kong adviser: city will reopen within a year

Bernard Chan said that authorities in the financial hub might desire to shorten quarantine for people visiting Hong Kong.

The city’s top adviser says he’s very optimistic the city will reopen to the world within the year. The comments from Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam come after a week of escalating tensions between the city and Beijing. He added that the government plans to shorten Covid-19 quarantine for travelers.

In a Bloomberg Television interview Wednesday, a financier and advisor, Bernard Chan. He said that everybody wants to end this thing as soon as possible. He added that as data shows the omicron variant’s incubation period is considerably shorter, perhaps they can shorten quarantine time. Chan said that once the city had a fully vaccinated community, he was very optimistic that it could reopen soon.

Overview of Hong Kong’s plan regarding reopening

Hong Kong, a small island country in East Asia, has some of the world’s strictest border controls. All incoming residents are required to submit to a 14-day quarantine period after being vaccinated. During this time, they are not allowed to leave their homes. This policy is not just for those visiting from other regions: The city residents who are not vaccinated are also required to stay home. Flight bans are still in place in eight countries, including the U.K. and the U.S.

Lam repeated that the city’s commitment to a zero-tolerance pandemic strategy focused on stopping the virus from its borders shared with China.

However, Chan ruled out a city-wide, China-style lockdown to control the current outbreak of the omicron variant.

He said he doesn’t think they can ever go into a complete lockdown. He added that they couldn’t do it in Hong Kong. Hong Kong cannot have the same kind of lockdown that you have seen in mainland China.