Coronavirus: antibody testing triggers industry calls for Hong Kong to expand quarantine exemptions to more business sectors | South China Morning Post
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Coronavirus: antibody testing triggers industry calls for Hong Kong to expand quarantine exemptions to more business sectors. Industry leaders say antibody screening supports the expansion of quarantine exemptions and relaunch of business travel. Authorities confirm the tests will be a further requirement for finance bosses seeking quarantine-free entry to Hong Kong. Industry leaders have urged Hong Kong officials to relaunch cross-border business activities in the city by expanding the Covid-19
quarantine exemptions for financial executives to cover more sectors, arguing that antibody testing allows for a widening of the system.
The calls to reopen Hong Kong to business travel were made on the back of a new antibody screening requirement being imposed on senior bankers and other top finance professionals seeking quarantine-free entry
, while the government is also under pressure to extend the privileges to executives who are medically unfit for vaccination. Here’s how Hong Kong’s quarantine exemption works for financial executives
“With this additional [antibody] test, the government should also expand its quarantine exemptions to other business sectors and allow exempted businesspeople to freely go about the city,” said Chan Kin-por, the city’s insurance sector lawmaker. “There should be a certain level of trust between the government and the exempted persons. There is no need to confine their activities.”
Fully vaccinated senior executives in the finance industry can apply for an exemption to the quarantine arrangements required for arrivals to Hong Kong, subject to a series of conditions which has been expanded to include testing positive for coronavirus antibodies. The requirement was confirmed on Tuesday after city leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor announced a day earlier the halving of mandatory quarantine to seven days for all fully vaccinated arrivals from lower-risk destinations who passed antibody tests, taking effect as early as June 30.
A spokesman for the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau said the antibody testing requirement was in force with immediate effect for finance executives seeking quarantine exemptions. “The relevant test must be conducted by an accredited local medical laboratory, and a positive result is valid for three months,” he said. The spokesman said a positive result would reduce the self-isolation period for an exempted person from 14 to seven days
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