Hong Kong will scrap hotel quarantine for inbound travelers from Sept. 26, the most substantial move yet in the city’s push to end its isolation and salvage its status as a global financial center.

People coming to the city will need to take a rapid test before departure, with the city doing away with the requirement for a pre-flight PCR, and will still need to take a PCR upon their arrival, Chief Executive John Lee said at a briefing on Friday. In the three days after they get to Hong Kong, travelers will continue to face restrictions on their movements, including being banned from going to bars and eating at restaurants, he said.

Currently, travelers must spend three days in a hotel followed by four days of monitoring that come with restrictions.

Hong Kong had been gearing up for further easing of its travel curbs after following China’s "COVID zero" lead throughout the pandemic. The changes come ahead of several high-profile events including an international banking summit and the iconic Rugby Sevens tournament that are slated for November.

Bankers have stipulated that a cut in quarantine rules would be needed in order for them to attend, while the city has more broadly been struggling to stem a brain drain after more than two years of harsh virus rules.

The easing comes as the city’s daily COVID-19 cases are declining, falling to less than 6,000 a day from more than 10,000 earlier this month. Most are local infections, with 163 imported cases reported Thursday.

It’s the latest in a number of steps Lee has taken to make travel less of a high-stakes gamble since being sworn into office on July 1. He ended some flight bans that could unpredictably derail travel, slashed the length of hotel quarantine stays, announced a plan to cease ordering people into government-run isolation facilities and stopped taking the temperatures of transit passengers as they passed through the city’s airport.

Hong Kong has trailed the reopening measures that have been put in place by all of its major financial rivals, including New York, London and, most importantly in the region, Singapore. Many expatriate workers have left the city for Singapore, which started its reopening in the spring and stuck with it even as case counts rebounded.