HONG KONG: Late last year, Tania Sibree quit her well-paid job as a financial services lawyer in Hong Kong and returned to Australia rather than live a moment longer with the city's strict coronavirus restrictions.
Sibree, who said she had enjoyed the previous five years in Hong Kong, is one of hundreds – possibly thousands – of foreign expatriate professionals who have left or are planning to leave, threatening to dent the city's standing as one of the world's financial hubs.
"The hotel quarantine made it just so tough for people to travel and that was the big incentive to being in Hong Kong, it was close to home and my parents. But you cannot do that long in hotel quarantine with kids," she said.
"Everyone had been thinking the restrictions would be lifted, it would get better and it would not go on for so long."
Hong Kong has only had about 13,000 coronavirus infections out of a population of 7.4 million, much lower than most places in the world. But the Chinese territory is following Beijing's "zero-COVID" policy rather than adapting to life with the virus.
It has had stiff quarantines in place for two years, and last year introduced some of the strictest entry rules in the world, allowing only residents to return to the city and mandatory hotel quarantine of up to three weeks for arrivals from most countries, regardless of vaccination status, paid for by the travellers themselves.
However, "zero COVID" is no closer – 140 new infections were reported in Hong Kong on Sunday – and there are no signs of the government easing those restrictions.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiWmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmNoYW5uZWxuZXdzYXNpYS5jb20vYXNpYS9ob25nLWtvbmctZXhwYXRzLWludGVybmF0aW9uYWwtdHJhdmVsLWNvdmlkMTktMjQ1NDkyMdIBAA?oc=5
2022-01-23 22:52:10Z
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