Hong Kong Cuts Isolation Period for Handover Events, SCMP Says

(Bloomberg) -- Top Hong Kong officials will only do a three-day hotel quarantine ahead of the city’s July 1 celebrations, according to the South China Morning Post, casting fresh doubt over President Xi Jinping’s attendance.

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The officials will undergo a four-day “self-managed period,” during which they should avoid pubs and crowded areas, before entering hotel quarantine under a revised closed-loop system, the publication reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.

Previously, the newspaper said those attending events marking 25 years of Chinese rule in the financial hub -- including outgoing Chief Executive Carrie Lam and her successor John Lee -- would likely need to do seven days quarantine ahead of the visit of an unspecified Chinese state leader.

The arrangements are still being finalized, the paper said. It is unclear whether the some 1,000 staff including security guards and police officers will still need to do a seven-day hotel quarantine.

While government officials have refused to say who’s coming for July 1, expectations have mounted that Xi, who hasn’t traveled outside of mainland China since January 2020, will visit Hong Kong and deliver a speech. Lam said earlier this week the conditions would need to be favorable for the Chinese leader to attend.

China has used closed-loop systems to ensure other key events go ahead with minimum infection risk as the country sticks to its Covid Zero policy. Similar protocols were used for the Beijing Winter Olympics in February and the National People’s Congress in March.

But with Hong Kong recording some 1,047 cases Wednesday -- the most in two months as it drifts from the mainland’s zero-tolerance approach -- it’s unclear whether a Xi visit is still possible, or a lower level official will attend.

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