Hong Kong Covid-19 quarantine: scramble for rooms as city residents stuck abroad plan return, with some hotels ‘fully booked till August’
- A check by the Post on 43 hotels shows only four of them still have rooms available in April, while at least 33 others only have vacancies after May
- Overseas Hongkongers share frustrations of trying to change bookings to take advantage of travel curbs set to ease next month
Hongkongers looking to take advantage of eased travel curbs to return to the city have found themselves scrambling to secure hotel rooms for quarantine, with some premises fully booked until August, the Post has found.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor on Monday revealed that existing control measures – which are some of the world’s most stringent – would be lifted early next month. Officials and medical experts had cited projection models in concluding that the city’s latest and worst Covid-19 outbreak might have peaked.
From April 1, inbound flights from nine countries – Australia, Canada, France, India, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Britain and the United States – will resume after being suspended on January 5.
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Covid-19: Hong Kong to open schools, lift flight ban, cut quarantine time and suspend mass testing
Fully vaccinated residents will only need to quarantine for seven days, down from two weeks, if they test negative for the coronavirus through PCR screening on the fifth day of their stay, as well as on a rapid antigen test on both the sixth and seventh days.
