John Lee, the Beijing-controlled chief executive of Hong Kong, announced on Tuesday that Hong Kong’s mandate to wear masks both inside and outdoors will be dropped on Wednesday, March 1.
The mandate was imposed in July 2020, making it one of the world’s longest-lasting and strictest coronavirus mandates.
“This means all our [coronavirus] measures have officially come to an end. Hong Kong has fully returned to normal,” Hong Kong’s chief health official, Lo Chung-mau, said at Lee’s press briefing.
“We look forward to March 1 – tomorrow – being better. Everyone can smile and say hello Hong Kong,” said Lo.
Hong Kong’s fellow “semi-autonomous” island city Macau dropped its outdoor mask mandate on Monday. Lee claimed in a press conference on Tuesday that he had coincidentally begun searching for the “appropriate time” to drop Hong Kong’s mandates about two months ago, and concluded March 1 would be perfect because “the winter surge is nearing the end.”
The more likely cause for Lee’s abrupt change of heart was his desperation to win tourism and business travel back to Hong Kong. When Lee visited the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on February 7 and claimed Hong Kong was “back in active business” with “no restrictions whatsoever,” he was quickly fact-checked because the mask mandates were still in effect.
Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee, center, wearing a face mask speaks to the media after he inspected Lok Ma Chau station following the reopening of crossing border with mainland China, in Hong Kong, Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023. Travelers crossing between Hong Kong and mainland China, however, are still required to show a negative COVID-19 test taken within the last 48 hours, a measure China has protested when imposed by other countries. (AP Photo/Bertha Wang)
Also in early February, Lee announced an initiative to jump-start tourism by giving away 500,000 free plane tickets through lottery draws and buy-one-get-one sales. The ticket giveaway is scheduled to begin on March 1, which is now the same day that mask mandates will be canceled.
Lee is probably also following Beijing’s lead, as most of China’s strict coronavirus controls and hellish lockdown policies were abruptly discarded after massive nationwide protests in December.
“During the pandemic, some flagship conferences and events in finance and banking shifted from Hong Kong to nearby rival Singapore so attendees could avoid the city’s Covid rules. Hong Kong officials were for a long time caught between adhering to strict pandemic controls in mainland China and conceding to the demands of international businesses that the city join other developed economies in living with the virus,” the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) noted on Tuesday.
In addition to ending mask requirements, Hong Kong health officials said secondary school students will no longer be required to take coronavirus tests every day, and this requirement will be dropped for kindergarten and primary school classes in two weeks. Medical staff and visitors to hospitals will be allowed to take rapid tests instead of full PCR tests.
Hong Kong dropped its last quarantine requirements for international visitors on January 30. Most quarantine restrictions were lifted in September, but travelers who tested positive for coronavirus were still required to undergo quarantine. Lee lifted that mandate as “one of the important steps toward normalcy.”
Hong Kong was one of the last jurisdictions in the world to require outdoor masking, and the requirement was backed with stiff fines of up to $1,200 in U.S. currency.
Ironically, Hong Kong’s mask ban is still in effect. The Communist-controlled island has been simultaneously requiring and banning masks for years because the 2019 pro-democracy protest movement was fond of using masks to thwart electronic surveillance and avoid reprisals. As of Tuesday, wearing masks during a protest after police order them to be removed remains punishable by the same maximum fine as failing to wear a mask outdoors during the pandemic.
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