Hong Kong leader tests positive for COVID after APEC forum

John Lee’s constructive check outcome comes days after assembly Chinese language President Xi Jinping in Bangkok.

Hong Kong chief John Lee is searching for to revive town's picture on the worldwide stage [File: Lam Yik/Reuters]

Hong Kong chief John Lee has examined constructive for COVID-19 after travelling to a regional financial summit in an effort to revive town’s battered worldwide picture and struggling financial system.

Lee examined constructive on Monday, town’s authorities mentioned, days after assembly with Chinese language President Xi Jinping and different world leaders on the Asia-Pacific Financial Cooperation (APEC) discussion board in Bangkok.

“The Chief Government is present process quarantine in accordance with the rules offered by the Centre for Well being Safety,” the federal government mentioned in an announcement.

Lee’s workplace mentioned he would work at home throughout his obligatory isolation interval, and no member of his workers who accompanied him had examined constructive.

The APEC summit was Lee’s first abroad journey since taking workplace in July and his first in any official capability for the reason that begin of the COVID-19 pandemic virtually three years in the past.

Lee, a former safety chief and policeman, forged the journey as a possibility to advertise Hong Kong’s return to the worldwide stage after town in September ended its controversial obligatory resort quarantine regime for arrivals.

The worldwide monetary hub, nevertheless, nonetheless maintains a number of the world’s strictest COVID-19 curbs, together with masks mandates, vaccine passes and a three-day monitoring interval beneath which arrivals are barred from venues reminiscent of eating places and bars.

Regardless of the lifting of obligatory quarantine, arrivals to town in October had been down virtually 98 % in contrast with the identical month in 2019.

Town is deep in recession for the second time in three years, with the financial system contracting 4.5 % within the July-September interval after shrinking 1.3 % the earlier quarter.

In Thailand, Lee mentioned he would inform “good tales” about Hong Kong, whose abroad status has additionally been hammered by China’s sweeping crackdown on dissent within the former British colony.

Throughout the summit, Lee met with Xi and regional leaders, together with Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Indonesian President Joko Widodo.

The APEC summit wrapped up on Saturday with the issuing of an announcement saying the battle in Ukraine had triggered “immense human struggling” and “vital penalties for the worldwide financial system” whereas noting there are “different views and totally different assessments of the scenario and sanctions”.