Hong Kong leader John Lee tested positive for Covid. He had just returned from the APEC summit in Bangkok, where he met Chinese President Xi Jinping and other heads of state. Lee is “in quarantine as required by the guidelines”, the government of the former British colony said. The trip to Thailand for the summit was the first abroad for the Hong Kong leader since the outbreak of the pandemic almost three years ago and the first since he took office last July.
Lee’s focus at the Asia-Pacific economies forum was to boost Hong Kong’s image as the city reopens to the world after imposing severe COVID-19 restrictions for much of the pandemic.