"I am announcing that the mask requirement will be completely abolished from tomorrow March 1, including indoors, outdoors and on public transit," said Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee.

Wearing a mask was imposed three years ago in Hong Kong, and has been maintained for nearly 1,000 days.

"I'm ready to get rid of it," said Tiffany, a financial sector employee in her twenties.

"It costs money to buy masks," she told AFP.

"With the removal of the wearing of the required mask, we are starting (a return) to full normalcy. And this will be very beneficial to economic development," added Mr. Lee, during a press briefing on Tuesday.

He added that hospitals and nursing homes could put their own restrictions in place.

Companies and other tourism professionals also felt that the mask undermined the overall image of the city.

This ultimate health restriction also goes against the executive's eagerness to demonstrate that Hong Kong has resumed its usual activities, John Lee having promised to welcome visitors "without isolation, without quarantine and without restrictions" during the launch of the "Hello, Hong Kong" campaign in early February.

"Anachronistic"

"Frankly, it's anachronistic today to be illegal if you don't wear it," Siddharth Sridhar, a virologist professor at the University of Hong Kong, tweeted on Sunday.

The mask was required in almost all public places, for anyone over the age of 2, under penalty of a fine of 10,000 Hong Kong dollars (1,200 euros).

By the end of 2022, Hong Kong had issued 22,000 fines for mask-related offenses and raised the equivalent of 13.4 million euros in payment.

The city was one of the last on the planet to require masks, even outdoors.

The lifting of this measure comes after an identical decision on Monday in the neighboring Chinese territory of Macau, which maintains the wearing of masks only in risk areas such as hospitals.

Last year, most European countries had ended this obligation everywhere, except in planes and some subways.

Singapore, Hong Kong's Asian rival, abolished the wearing of masks inside buildings in August, while South Korea did the same in January this year.

In Taiwan, people can breathe unfiltered air again in most places since February 20.

"Like a part of the body"

Until late last year, Hong Kong had one of the world's strictest approaches to the pandemic.

She stuck to Beijing's "zero covid" strategy, until mainland China suddenly abandoned its restrictive policy in December.

Masks were compulsory in most settings, even outdoors © DALE DE LA REY / AFP/Archives

Containments and systematic screening tests were then abandoned in Hong Kong where the economy was already shaken by the massive democratic demonstrations of 2019, followed by a crackdown on the opposition.

Still, not all Hong Kong residents are ready to take off their masks just yet.

"Despite lifting the mask requirement, I will continue to wear them for the short term," said Chan, a pensioner.

He prefers to wait and make sure there is no resurgence of infections after the reopening of borders with mainland China.

“The mask is like a part of my body,” he says, “if I stop wearing it, it takes time to get used to it.”

© 2023 AFP