(Bloomberg) — Hong Kong’s zero-tolerance approach to Covid-19 could keep the Asian financial hub cut off from most of the world until 2024 and fuel a large-scale exodus of international workers and executives, according to a draft report by the European Chamber of Commerce in the city.
The most likely scenario for Hong Kong’s exit from its isolation is to wait for China to finish developing a powerful messenger RNA vaccine and immunize its 1.4 billion people, the business group said in an internal document seen and verified by Bloomberg.
A reopening could then happen late next year or early 2024, the document said, adding that companies should prepare for Hong Kong to remain “semi-closed” to international travel.
“We anticipate an exodus of foreigners, probably the largest that Hong Kong has ever seen, and one of the largest in absolute terms from any city in the region” in recent history, the report said.