HONG KONG, (Reuters) – UBS Group AG (SIX 🙂 offers up to HK$2000 ($256.45 per day) to its Hong Kong workers to pay for mandatory hotel quarantine expenses. Hong Kong is known for having some of strictest COVID rules in the country.

Reuters saw a memo from the bank stating that full-time employees above the executive director rank would be eligible to receive the payments for the period of now through November 2022.

The contents of the memo were confirmed by a spokesperson from UBS Hong Kong.

Hong Kong has a 21-day mandatory hotel quarantine that is required for all arrivals from many countries. This fee is payable by the traveller.

The city last week banned https://www.reuters.com/world/china/hong-kong-bans-non-resident-arrivals-13-more-countries-due-omicron-2021-11-30 non-residents from entering Hong Kong from a further four African countries and will expand that to travellers who have been to Australia, Canada, Israel and six European countries in the past 21 days due to fears over the Omicron coronavirus variant.

Hong Kong, one of the last places on the planet to pursue a zero COVID strategy, has the most restrictive travel restrictions.

The government hopes to partially reopen China’s border with China over the next few months. China also does not tolerate coronavirus cases.

Major employers like banks are finding it increasingly difficult to maintain staff in Hong Kong.

JPMorgan (NYSE) has granted some employees a $5,000 one-off payment to pay for quarantine costs.

($1 = 7.7988 Hong Kong dollars)