‘Broad’ quarantine policy for Guangdong was wrong: CE

Chief Executive Carrie Lam said on Tuesday it was wrong for Hong Kong to have initially suspended quarantine-free entry for Hongkongers returning from Guangdong.

Speaking before the weekly Executive Council meeting, Lam brushed aside suggestions that the government had bowed to “external pressure or some people’s remarks” in reversing the decision to exclude the province from the ‘Return2hk’ scheme – just hours after the move was announced by the Centre for Health Protection.

The original decision had been criticised by former chief executive CY Leung, who said he couldn’t understand how cross-border travel could ever be resumed if such strict standards were applied.

But Lam described the U-turn as a “policy adjustment”.

She said it was “not proportionate” to make SAR residents returning from anywhere in neighbouring Guangdong undergo quarantine when only a small community there had been affected by the new Covid-19 case.

“The mainland is such a large place, and the National Health Commission manages confirmed cases with a small district-based approach. Our country in these one-and-a-half years has been praised or used as a good example for the world for sealing off a small district and testing everyone inside, before letting them go out,” Lam said.

She added that, under these circumstances, “the ‘Return2hk’ scheme should not be changed in a broad-based manner, even when considering the risk to public health, especially when many Hong Kong residents in Guangdong will be affected.”

Lam added that SAR residents in Liaoning and Anhui provinces had also been banned from quarantine-free entry to the city, but it was not until Guangdong, with which Hong Kong has close ties, was added to the list that authorities realised the suspension mechanism was “not the most suitable”.

She said the SAR will from Tuesday adopt the mainland authority’s list of medium- and high-risk places, which will be excluded from the quarantine-free entry scheme.