'Shorter Quarantine On Mainland Good For HK Economy'

Executive Council member Jeffrey Lam said on Saturday that the mainland's move to shorten the time inbound travellers must spend in quarantine will benefit Hong Kong's economy.

Speaking on a Commercial Radio programme, Lam – who is also a legislator – said it would now be more convenient for travellers to go to the mainland from Hong Kong, and for tourists to come to the SAR from across the border.

Mainland authorities announced on Friday that inbound travellers would need to spend only five days – instead of seven – in centralised quarantine. They will still have to isolate at home for a further three days.

"There are costs every day [when you are quarantined]. You have to pay for the hotel room, and you can't work. So even though '5+3' is not what some people expected, I think it is a good start," he told reporters after the programme.

The Business and Professional Alliance lawmaker said he hoped the number of Hong Kong people allowed to travel to the mainland each day would be increased, and that some business travellers would be allowed to cross the border quarantine-free.

On local anti-Covid measures, Lam said medical surveillance rules for incoming travellers should be eased so people can dine in restaurants during their first three days here, when they have an amber code.

He said authorities should also reduce the number of PCR tests new arrivals must take, replacing them with rapid antigen tests, but he agreed that it was appropriate to loosen Covid curbs gradually.

The Liberal Party leader, Tommy Cheung, who represents the catering sector in the Legislative Council, spoke on the same programme and echoed Lam's views.

"From the economic perspective, the catering sector surely wants all measures to be eased, so there will be no social-distancing and masks aren't needed. Many people would want that. But we have to understand... we can't let our public hospitals collapse," he said.

But Cheung's party-mate, Peter Shiu, said he hoped the government would relax Covid restrictions more quickly to help the economy.

Shiu, the retail sector lawmaker, told an RTHK programme that tourists would not return to the SAR if travel requirements here are more strict than those elsewhere.