What’s new: Hong Kong further eased its quarantine measures in the face of a continuing surge in new Covid cases, following mainland China’s shift away from its stringent “zero-Covid” disease control policies.
Starting Friday, the quarantine period for residents infected with Covid-19 and their close contacts will be lowered to five days from seven. Infected people will be allowed to leave isolation if they test negative on the fourth and fifth days, health authorities said Thursday. The shortened period would also apply to unvaccinated people, who previously were required to quarantine for 14 days.
According to data from September through mid-November, Hong Kong recorded 350,000 close contacts of infected patients, of whom about 100,000 were confirmed as positive. More than 90% of cases were diagnosed before the fifth day. Based on that, authorities consider five days of quarantine relatively safe, said Health Undersecretary Libby Lee Ha-yun.
Hong Kong reported 14,373 new positive cases Thursday, the highest daily level since July. The pressure on the health-care system remains high. More than 3,200 people are hospitalized with Covid. The number of newly hospitalized patients rose from more than 300 daily to more than 400, and the number of critical and severe cases jumped to more than 120, said Hospital Authority Chief Manager Larry Lee Lap-yip.
The background: Hong Kong’s move followed easing pandemic control measures adopted by Chinese mainland authorities.
Major cities across China including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou further eased local Covid-19 restrictions on travel and quarantine after the country announced sweeping changes to its stringent virus control regime.
Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, tech hub Hangzhou and several other scrapped daily Covid test mandates after the State Council, China’s cabinet, issued a 10-point guideline lifting some of the country’s toughest Covid curbs, such as allowing some infected people to undergo quarantine in their homes rather than in centralized facilities.
Contact reporter Denise Jia (huijuanjia@caixin.com) and editor Bob Simison (bob.simison@caixin.com)
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