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Shades Off | Hong Kong’s backward zero-Covid policy threatens to kill all our hopes and dreams
- There has to come a point where Hong Kong and Beijing accept that the coronavirus is here to stay and, like Australia and elsewhere, start to open up
- Until that day, my plan to buy an apartment in Australia will just have to remain on hold
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It’s been 20 months since I last left Hong Kong. This is by far a record for me; having lived in the city for more than three decades before the pandemic, I was used to taking overseas trips three or four times a year.
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I’m eager to travel again; I want to buy an apartment in Australia. But like most residents of Hong Kong, I’m grounded, as the city’s compulsory Covid-19 quarantine orders banish thoughts of any such journey.
Hongkongers are often cited among the world’s most frequent overseas travellers. About 77 per cent have passports, a figure beating Canada’s 67 per cent, Australia’s 57 per cent and the United States’ 43 per cent.
That is unsurprising, given that the city covers just 1,100 square kilometres, ensuring a dearth of domestic travel. Covid-19 has obviously changed that, but the eagerness of residents to head for the airport and go back to their sojourning ways is palpable.
Giving people immunity against the travel bug are those coronavirus restrictions. Currently, the government’s three-tier risk scale mandates seven-, 14- and 21-day compulsory hotel isolation periods depending on the country of departure.
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Only New Zealand is at the lowest level of risk; popular destinations like Britain, France, Thailand and the United States are at the highest. Even mainland China is out of bounds: Hong Kong, with a single local infection in two months, is considered too much of a risk for the mainland to tolerate visits by Hong Kong residents.
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