HK Government Plans to Remove Hotel Quarantine Hotel; Tight-lip as to when

The Hong Kong government plans to scrap the Hong Kong quarantine rule but no date has been made as of yet.

On Sep. 17, Lo Chung-mau, health secretary, made the announcement.

According to Lo, the “three plus four” rule, which was introduced last month revealed that no inbound traveler with the “Amber code” from their LeaveHomeApp had entered any restaurants. This is positive data for Lo.

Right now, travelers are required to spend three nights at a designated hotel and stay at their homes to monitor their health. If their results turn positive, they can either stay put to recover or stay at Penny’s Bay/Kai Tak, a free government facility.

The Government had recently made this announcement last week as part of the ninth cycle of the Designated Quarantine Hotel (DQH) scheme, which will start from Nov.1, 2022, until Feb.28, 2023.

Speaking to reporters on Sep.17, “The total deaths of Covid in 2022 has exceeded 9,000. We can just look at the past few months,” said Lo.

“We have to understand before Covid, Hong Kong’s already facing extreme pressure on the healthcare system and our waiting time is pretty long. And at the same time, with the recent wastage of our healthcare professionals, the staff attrition rate is on the high side. These are things that we have to consider. It is not just the snapshot fatality rate in the last few months that we consider.”

As of Sep.18, there were 8,149 local new cases and 129 imported cases. 16 people have died within the last 24 hours.