Hong Kong will scrap its mandatory hotel quarantine next week, its government said today (23 September), in a watershed moment for the international financial centre after two years of highly restrictive Covid measures.
Visitors will still need to take a rapid antigen test before flying under the new rules, which come into effect on Monday 26 September.
Hong Kong currently has a three-day hotel quarantine for arrivals who are then required to undergo four subsequent days of restrictions that ban eating in restaurants.
"We need to be given room to connect with the whole world, so that our society can be given the greatest economic momentum," Hong Kong's chief executive John Lee said in local reports. "We need to reduce the inconvenience for people and hope we don't have to go back to before."
Singapore, which this week jumped ahead of Hong Kong in the latest Global Financial Centre Index report, restarted quarantine-free travel earlier this year.
