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Letters | UK’s ‘green list’ for travel: why is Singapore in and Hong Kong out?
- It makes little sense that Singapore, with more active coronavirus cases and more in total than Hong Kong, should be on the list while Hong Kong is not
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Why you can trust SCMP
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James Webster in his letter (“Britain does not deserve very high risk status”, May 11) highlights an apparent anomaly in the Hong Kong government’s quarantine list. The British government’s new green list of 12 countries and territories, from where arrivals will be exempt from self-isolation or quarantine from May 17, also needs urgent questioning.
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Singapore is included in the list, but not Hong Kong. Singapore has, based on this week’s Worldometer Covid-19 figures, over 390 active cases compared to Hong Kong’s 100. Singapore has had over 61,400 cases compared to Hong Kong’s 11,800, with cases per million nearly 10,000 more than in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong’s exclusion from the green list defies logic, not least as it is about to start a travel bubble – with Singapore! There must be hundreds of Hong Kong residents who are going to suffer because of this bizarre decision.
As a Hong Kong dependent resident, and a former British diplomat with postings in the region, I would like to think that the British consulate-general here, and the embassy in Beijing, will lobby at a senior level for a rapid change to this nonsensical exclusion, which bears no relation to the facts.
Peter Beckingham, Repulse Bay
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Don’t exclude children from eased quarantine rules
It comes as a huge shock and bitter disappointment to families that minor children of vaccinated parents travelling from abroad into Hong Kong can’t enjoy a reduction of quarantine themselves. Does the government trust its own vaccination programme?
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