There were jubilant reunions in Hong Kong International Airport on Monday, as the city lifted its mandatory quarantine for international travelers after more than 900 days of stringent pandemic controls. Hong Kong's Chief Executive Jack Lee hailed the "warm and joyful scenes," as some families reunited after more than two years apart. "We hope to give the maximum room to reconnect Hong Kong, and to revitalize our economy," Lee said last Friday, announcing the change to protocols.
The move came after growing pressure from the business community for Lee to address Hong Kong's faltering economy. Hong Kong's zero-Covid approach threatened its status as an expat-friendly finance hub at the doorstep of mainland China. A report earlier this year found nearly half of European businesses in Hong Kong were planning to relocate. Countries like Singapore, which relaxed its Covid restrictions earlier this year, stood to profit from these businesses looking elsewhere.
But Hong Kong officials hope ending formal quarantine rules will reverse this. Now, instead of having to isolate in a hotel at their own expense, international arrivals can undergo a three-day self-monitoring period at home or in a location of their choice. During this time travelers will have to take several tests and will be unable to enter bars or restaurants, but it still marks a sharp retreat from the most severe of Hong Kong's restrictions. Officials refer to it as the "0 + 3" policy: zero days of quarantine; three days of self-monitoring. While this is a significant relaxation of the rules, it is not as laissez-faire as other countries. In a press conference Tuesday, Lee insisted new arrivals observe the three-day self-monitoring period, in order to avoid a "rebound" of cases. He said authorities have already found some 25,000 fake vaccine exemption certificates, alongside other instances of rule-flouting. "We have to condemn this non-compliance because it affects every one of us," Lee said, threatening to reimpose the restrictions if this continued.
Despite these caveats, international airlines are already scrambling to add more flights to Hong Kong following the announcement. Cathay Pacific (CPCAY), the city's flag carrier, said Friday it would add more than 200 flight services in October. The announcement of the removal of quarantine came as a relief to the business, which for the past two-and-a-half years saw its capacity slashed to 2% of its pre-pandemic levels.
Japan also announced it would dissolve its remaining Covid-19 restrictions and reopen the door to mass tourism. "We will lift the ceiling of the number of entrants into Japan, lift the ban on individual travel and lift the ban over visa-less travel," Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Thursday. He also revealed a campaign to offer domestic travel and event discounts to Japanese citizens, in a move designed to reinvigorate the hotel, travel and entertainment sectors stifled during the pandemic. Japan officially reopened travel in June, but specified that tourists could only travel as part of organized groups, rather than as individuals -- a "semi-open" policy that failed to attract many visitors. Japan hopes that fully opening its doors will encourage more tourism.
Hong Kong and Japan joined a growing list of countries -- including New Zealand and Australia -- that recently reversed their tough stances on Covid. Taiwan is also expected to follow suit, after it announced a plan to scrap mandatory quarantine on October 13. Very few countries remain wedded to their zero-Covid stance, with one notable exception.
Meanwhile in the United Kingdom, when it rains, it pours. Already grappling with political, economic and cost-of-living crises, now Britons have another thing to worry about: A "twindemic." The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has warned that's what the country might be facing this winter if people don't get their Covid booster and flu shots. Susan Hopkins, chief medical adviser at UKHSA, said in a statement Wednesday there were "strong indications we could be facing the threat of widely circulating flu, lower levels of natural immunity due to less exposure over the last three winters and an increase in Covid-19 circulating with lots of variants that can evade the immune response." The US is also bracing for a potential combination of high Covid and flu cases this winter.
And as evidence mounts that the UK is heading into a fall Covid wave, experts now say the US may not be far behind. "Generally, what happens in the UK is reflected about a month later in the US," said Tim Spector, professor of genetic epidemiology at King's College London, who created the Zoe Health Study, formerly the Covid Symptom Study. The study, which uses a crowdsourcing app that allows people to record their symptoms, saw a 30% increase in reported Covid-19 cases within the past week, "showing this is the beginning of the next wave," Spector said.
Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna have announced they are seeking authorization for their updated Covid boosters for younger children. Their bivalent booster shots, which target recent Omicron subvariants as well as the original coronavirus strain, received approval from the Food and Drug Administration in August. Pfizer's booster can be given to those aged 12 and over; Moderna's to those aged 18 and over. Yet Pfizer announced it is studying the safety, tolerability and immune responses of its vaccine for those as young as 6 months. Moderna applied for authorization to begin similar studies later this year.
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