After a three-year hiatus, the famed Hong Kong Sevens tournament will be back in November, but rugby fans who come from overseas will likely still have to undergo the city’s strict quarantine requirements, according to a lawmaker.
The Hong Kong Rugby Union earlier announced it has received the government’s approval to hold the tournament from Nov. 4 to 6.
According to RTHK, Nixie Lam, a legislator representing the election committee constituency, said on its program on Monday that she believed that overseas visitors to the event will still have to undergo quarantine for Covid-19.
Inbound travelers to Hong Kong currently have to undergo mandatory quarantine in designated hotels for seven days.
Lam, who has been following up on the event, also said that the union told her that it would engage a designated hotel to quarantine the competing athletes for seven days.
It would also arrange vehicles to take the athletes to a specific location for training to reduce contact with the city’s residents, she added.
The international tournament has been canceled or postponed since 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to market research, the 2017 Sevens was estimated to have injected at least HK$380 million (US$48 million) into the city’s economy thanks to overseas visitors.
