Hong Kong will prolong mandatory wearing of masks in public places, despite planning a number of campaigns to show visitors and residents alike that the city has escaped the shadow of Covid.
(Bloomberg) — Hong Kong will prolong mandatory wearing of masks in public places, despite planning a number of campaigns to show visitors and residents alike that the city has escaped the shadow of Covid.
The city extended the regulation by two weeks to March 8, according to a government gazette published late Wednesday. That means the rule, enforceable by fines of up to HK$10,000 ($1,275), will be in place for almost 1,000 days.
The move comes as the government seeks to attract tourists and overseas workers to help revive the battered economy. Though Hong Kong leader John Lee has said a number of times he hopes to remove the rule after the winter surge ends, he has yet to be more specific.
Retaining the pandemic rule makes Hong Kong stand out among global financial centers. The city had dropped most of its other curbs by earlier in the year.
The extension potentially drags mask wearing into March, when the city will host a number of global events, making it the busiest month in more than three years. To lure tourists, the city is giving away more than half a million airline tickets as part of its Hello Hong Kong campaign.
Finance chief Paul Chan on Wednesday said the government would soon also launch a Happy Hong Kong campaign to boost the economy. This would include activities to create “gourmet experiences, fun amusements and exciting ambience,” he said in his annual budget address.
Hong Kong’s economy shrank in three of the last four years, while the population fell by 187,300, or 2.5%, to 7.33 million from the end of 2019 through 2022 as residents left for other cities.
Expat Incentives Absent from Hong Kong’s Inward-Looking Budget
In another sign the city has yet to leave the Covid era — memorable in Hong Kong for years of closed borders, extreme social distancing rules and failure to stop a wave of deaths from omicron — the Education Bureau said on Tuesday students at kindergartens, primary and special needs schools will need to continue to do daily Covid tests at least until March 15. The requirement will be dropped for secondary school students from March 1.
–With assistance from Foster Wong.
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