Top Hong Kong Adviser ‘Very Optimistic’ City Will Reopen Within Year

A top adviser to Hong Kong’s leader says he’s “very optimistic” the city will reopen to the world within the next year and that shortening Covid-19 quarantine for inbound travelers is the government’s “next objective.” “We all want to end this thing as soon as we can,” Bernard Chan, a financier and convener of Chief Executive Carrie Lam’s advisory Executive Council, said in a Bloomberg Television interview Wednesday. “I’m very hopeful as more data shows the omicron variant’s incubation period is actually much shorter, that perhaps we can aim for a shorter quarantine time,” he said. “You know, that’s probably the next objective.”