Hong Kong Cuts Covid-19 Quarantine to 3 Days

The city has been caught between sticking to stringent antivirus controls in line with Beijing’s zero-Covid policy and trying to retain its appeal as an open and globally connected base for business. As most of the world returns to normal, Hong Kong’s border controls and the perceived risk that it may resort to mainland-style lockdowns and other measures have led to public frustration and prompted many skilled workers to leave.

While business groups welcomed any cut to quarantine time, they say the restrictions are eating into Hong Kong’s competitive edge as a global financial center and regional base for multinational companies.

“Although a move in the right direction, further reduction of quarantine will accelerate connectivity, reduce business costs for companies, and attract international investment into the city,” said Joseph Armas, chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong. “Ultimately, our members are hopeful for a zero quarantine or home quarantine direction as Hong Kong must reopen immediately and reconnect with other major cities.”

The shortened quarantine offers welcome relief to residents but is unlikely to benefit business travel or tourism, said

David Graham,

executive director of the British Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, a business lobby. A full lifting of quarantine controls is critical for Hong Kong’s economic and business outlook, he said.

Hong Kong’s recently appointed leader, John Lee, said the decision to shorten the quarantine was based on an assessment of the risk to public health, as well as lifestyle and economic considerations.

“It is a balance of factors,” Mr. Lee said. “While we can control the threat to public health, we also want to ensure society can have the maximum degree of economic and social activities so people can go about as normally as possible, and the competitiveness of Hong Kong can be maintained.”

The changes reflect the government’s reading of data showing that after three days people leaving quarantine pose no greater transmission threat than do others in the community. In contrast to the mainland’s no-tolerance policy on Covid cases, daily life has largely returned to normal in Hong Kong, with gyms and bars open—albeit with some restrictions, such as size of gatherings—even with thousands of new daily Covid cases.

While stringent isolation requirements—at one point last year, arrivals had to spend 21 days in hotel quarantine—had more support when the city had zero or very few cases, recent waves that resulted in tens of thousands of new infections every day made quarantine even more exasperating to people wanting to travel in and out of the city.

Mr. Lee and his team didn’t spell out a pathway to further reducing quarantine in the coming months. A crucial milestone comes in November, when Hong Kong plans to host a financial forum and its first Sevens in more than three years—a popular three-day rugby tournament that previously drew thousands of visitors each spring and coincided with conferences and other networking events. Even a truncated quarantine would likely be too much for these types of whirlwind trips to a city once famed for the ease and efficiency of its connections to the rest of the world.

More residents have flown out of Hong Kong’s airport than have arrived every month for the past year to July, with net departures of almost 120,000 in the first quarter of 2022, according to government data compiled by

David Webb,

a retired investment banker and longtime Hong Kong resident.

In a July 1 speech in Hong Kong, Chinese President

Xi Jinping

said that the city must retain its status as an international hub for the country. “The central government fully supports Hong Kong in its effort to maintain its distinctive status and edge, to improve its presence as an international financial, shipping and trading center, to keep its business environment free, open and regulated, and to maintain the common law, so as to expand and facilitate its exchanges with the world,” he said.

Pro-Beijing figures and government officials have since invoked Mr. Xi when pushing plans to open up to the rest of the world, ahead of any relaxation of border controls with the mainland—a goal of the previous administration. Mr. Lee said Monday that his team was still working to resume travel with the mainland.

After the Omicron variant of the coronavirus began to spread globally late last year, Singapore—Hong Kong’s perennial rival as the leading global financial center in Asia—laid out a clear road map from the Covid crisis and gradually removed all travel restrictions.

Singapore has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of Hong Kong’s isolation, with more executives and their families relocating to the city along with some of the marquee events that were another pillar of Hong Kong’s appeal. While many of those moves may prove temporary, the question facing Hong Kong’s leaders now is how to lure people back before the shift becomes permanent.

The shortened quarantine follows earlier easing measures, including the scrapping of a policy to suspend airline routes if a flight carried a certain number of Covid-positive to the city. Visitors and returning residents must still provide proof of a negative PCR test result 48 hours before they board, along with vaccination proof. Unvaccinated visitors face a longer quarantine period.

Unpredictable availability of quarantine hotels, and a rule barring anyone who is confirmed as a Covid-19 case within two weeks of their flight, have added complexity to travel plans. After Monday’s announcement, many businesses and lobby groups welcomed the changes but called for the government to urgently provide a road map to zero quarantine.

“Only by jettisoning the word ‘quarantine’ altogether can we really rebuild HK Inc.’s brand,” said Sally Wong, chief executive of the Hong Kong Investment Funds Association. “Many activities such as conferences and meetings are planned months ahead and if the government can throw light on the next step, it would be extremely helpful.”

Write to Natasha Khan at natasha.khan@wsj.com