CE Tight-lipped On Scrapping Hotel Quarantine Rule

Chief Executive John Lee on Tuesday refused to be drawn on whether the government will further relax entry requirements in November to allow arrivals to undergo seven days of medical surveillance at home instead of having to quarantine at hotels.

Speaking to reporters before going into the weekly Executive Council meeting, Lee said authorities will consider several factors while deciding on its Covid strategies, including the so-called "zero plus seven" policy.

He said the government will strive to reduce the number of infections, serious and death cases, while classifying people into different risk categories for proper control.

He added that his administration will balance the risks against the need for normal social and economic activities.

"In regard to what we will do in future months as regards the number of quarantine days, we will have to assess it based on the number of infected cases and how the transmission will be happening," he said.

Meanwhile, the CE said talks are still underway with mainland authorities on the proposed reverse quarantine plan.

"The SAR government has come up with issues we think need to be discussed, including the standard of PCR tests and how people can be sent to the mainland in a close loop after completing the reverse quarantine... as well as the manpower deployment on both sides," he said.

"I hope people will understand there are different issues to look into and overcome... Also, the mainland needs to control its Covid situation and Hong Kong is seeing 10,000 cases a day... so we need a bit of time to discuss the new arrangements of reverse quarantine."