Anxious to retain talent, Hong Kong multinationals cover quarantine costs of expatriate staff who travel to visit families
- ‘Quarantine subsidies’ are a hefty financial burden for companies that rely on foreign employees
- Covid-19 travel restrictions have stopped many foreign employees from returning home for two years
Some multinational firms in Hong Kong will continue to cover the quarantine costs of employees with overseas families in hopes of retaining talent in a city with possibly the most stringent Covid-19 entry restrictions in the world.
Restaurant groups and investment banks interviewed by the Post said they forked out millions of dollars on quarantine costs in 2021 so their staff could visit their families.
That financial burden is now expected to spill into the new year after Secretary for Food and Health Professor Sophia Chan Shiu-chee warned that quarantine measures would be tightened further if Hong Kong faced a fifth wave of infections.
The authorities have already tightened quarantine and travel restrictions to combat the more infectious Omicron coronavirus variant sweeping the globe since the first case was found in the city on November 26.
As a result, Hong Kong’s list of high-risk destinations has expanded rapidly to include more than 120 places. Travellers returning from listed places must spend 21 days in compulsory isolation at a government-approved hotel.
Countries on the list include Australia, Canada, New Zealand and most of Southeast Asia.
Those arriving from 14 locations, including the United Kingdom, the United States and several African countries, are subject to the even more stringent requirement of spending four days in mandatory confinement at the government-run Penny’s Bay camp before being sent to spend their remaining 17 days of quarantine at a designated hotel.
