Advertisement
Hong Kong elections: are city’s tough Covid-19 quarantine rules ‘more politics than science’? Yes, according to a candidate in coming Legco race
- Mike Rowse, former director general of InvestHK and self-proclaimed ‘unusual candidate’, makes comments in Post video, one of three throwing spotlight on election aspirants
- Joining him is FTU’s Alice Mak, who assures voters she has not given up on her former constituency, and will continue to fight for labour rights in the legislature
Reading Time:3 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
36
25:22
Hong Kong Legco election candidates up close: Alice Mak and Mike Rowse
Hong Kong Legco election candidates up close: Alice Mak and Mike Rowse
Hong Kong’s strict quarantine policy is “more politics than science”, according to former InvestHK director general Mike Rowse, who has thrown his hat into the ring for this month’s Legislative Council election.
Rowse also said he “felt sorry” for his successor in charge of the government department tasked with convincing foreign companies that Hong Kong was still a “go-to” place for business, with more than 50 countries now classified as high risk under local Covid-19 travel rules, as the Omicron coronavirus variant spreads worldwide.
The Group A status of such countries means arriving Hong Kong residents from the jurisdictions must serve the maximum 21-day quarantine, while non-residents are barred entirely from entering the city.
The former government official made the remarks in an exchange with the Federation of Trade Unions’ (FTU) Alice Mak Mei-kuen on Legco Election: Candidates up close, a three-part video series by the Post, centred on candidates for the December 19 race.
Both are among 51 hopefuls vying for the 40 seats of the new Election Committee constituency in the expanded 90-strong legislature.
Pointing to an analysis of imported Covid-19 cases by the Department of Health that found 92 per cent of the infections were detected in the first week of isolation and 99 per cent by the second, Rowse, 72, raised doubts over the quarantine duration: “Why are we insisting on 21 days?”
Advertisement