The removal of restrictions is a dramatic reversal for a city which isolated itself for most of the pandemic, and comes a day after Lee unveiled a publicity campaign to revive the economy and repair the city’s damaged image. To bring in much-needed visitors, Hong Kong will give away more than 500,000 air tickets this year. Life in the city has effectively returned to normal, with only the mandatory wearing of masks a reminder of the Covid Zero era.
The border between Hong Kong and mainland China will fully reopen next week for the first time in three years, reviving the city’s role as the business gateway between the country and the rest of the world.
“From Monday, there will be full resumption of normal travel between Hong Kong and the mainland,” the city’s leader John Lee said in a press briefing Friday along with other top officials. Daily quotas and testing requirements will be dropped and all boundary checkpoints will reopen from next week, Lee said. He also announced the lifting of a ban on unvaccinated travellers from anywhere in the world.
