COVID patients no longer have to quarantine in Hong Kong as restrictions are lifted

People who test positive for coronavirus will no longer have to quarantine in Hong Kong as part of a lifting of restrictions, the Chinese territory’s leader has said.

All social distancing measures will also be scrapped except the mandatory mask rule, and group gatherings will be allowed in public places, chief executive John Lee has said.

Close contacts of COVID patients will also not have to quarantine.

Mr Lee added that international travellers to Hong Kong will no longer need to do a mandatory PCR COVID-19 test and the city’s vaccine pass required to enter most venues will also be scrapped.

The lifting of measures will be effective from 29 December.

The Hong Kong government has confirmed it will not provide COVID vaccination to short term visitors to the territory.

Meanwhile, China has said it will resume issuing ordinary visa and passports in another big step away from COVID control measures that have isolated the country for almost three years.

This move means million of Chinese people go abroad for next month’s Lunar New Year holiday, meaning they might spread coronavirus as infections surge in the country.

The rolling back of some of the world’s strictest anti-virus controls comes as President Xi Jinping’s government tries to reverse an economic slump.

Rules that confined millions of people to their homes kept China’s infection rate low but fuelled public frustration and crushed economic growth.

China stopped issuing visas to foreigners and passports to its own people at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020.