Hong Kong could open up to global travel in roughly six months, after officials have successfully navigated the introduction of quarantine-free borders with mainland China and boosted the local vaccination rate, a government adviser said.
The Chinese territory needs to finish negotiating open borders with the mainland, while using the next few months to increase the flagging COVID-19 inoculation rate among the city’s elderly, Lam Ching-choi, a member of Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam’s advisory Executive Council, said in an interview on Monday.
"We maybe need half a year or so to develop an adequate vaccination rate, especially among the older people,” said Lam Ching-choi, who is also part of the government’s working group on vaccinations. "Hopefully by then, we have opened up the border with China and we might have conditions favorable to open up the border to other places.”