Ｎ・キッドマンさんの隔離免除、香港で怒り買う

【香港ＡＦＰ＝時事】香港で、新作ドラマの撮影のため入国したハリウッド女優ニコール・キッドマンさん（５４）が新型コロナウイルス対策の隔離を免除されたことを受け、市民から怒りの声が上がっている。（写真はオーストラリア人女優のニコール・キッドマンさん）
　香港の検疫措置は世界でも特に厳しい部類に入り、これにより新型ウイルスの感染拡大は抑えられているが、市民の多くは過去１年半にわたり国外の家族と会えずにいる。
　リスクの高い国から同市入りした渡航者は、ホテルで２１日間隔離される。リスクの低い国からの渡航者には、ホテルでの７日間の隔離に加え、７日間の自己観察期間が設けられている。
　だが香港当局は、キッドマンさんと撮影クルーについて、「指定の専門業務遂行」を理由に隔離を免除。隔離を免除された人は、到着後２週間にわたりコロナウイルス検査を３回受ける必要がある。
　香港で撮影されているドラマは、米小売り・ＩＴ大手アマゾン・ドットコムが製作する「Ｅｘｐａｔｓ（国外在住者たち）」。香港に駐在する米国人女性３人の華やかな生活を描いたジャニス・Ｙ・Ｋ・リーさんの小説が原作で、キッドマンさんは製作総指揮を務める。
　香港のタブロイド各紙は、今月１２日にオーストラリアからプライベートジェットで香港入りしたキッドマンさんの行動を詳細に報道。入国から２日後に買い物を楽しむ姿や、市内の西環地区でその後行われた撮影の様子などを伝えている。
　ソーシャルメディアではキッドマンさんの隔離免除について、外国人を含む香港市民からのコメントが殺到。中国が香港の民主派に対する抑圧を進めている中、同市で暮らす裕福な外国人エリート層を扱ったドラマを撮影することを批判する声も上がった。
　香港で隔離中の人たちを支援するグループのフェイスブックのページにも、怒りをあらわにしたコメントが多く寄せられた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/08/20-10:47）

Hong Kong's decision to grant Hollywood star Nicole Kidman a quarantine exemption as she films an Amazon-funded series about the lives of wealthy expats has sparked public anger.
The Chinese financial hub maintains some of the strictest quarantine measures in the world, an approach that has kept virus cases low but left most residents cut off from overseas loved ones for the last 18 months.
Arrivals from high-risk countries have to stay in hotel quarantine for 21 days, while lower-risk countries have seven days hotel quarantine followed by a further seven days of self-monitoring.
But Kidman, 54, has been allowed to circumvent those rules.
Hong Kong's Commerce and Economic Development Bureau confirmed the Australian actress and other film crew had been granted an exemption to carry out designated professional work.
Those exempted must take three coronavirus tests over two weeks following their arrival.
The city's tabloids have closely followed Kidman's appearances in Hong Kong since touching down last Thursday in a private jet from Australia, including shopping two days after her arrival and later filming in the city's Sai Wan district.
Kidman has been announced as an executive producer on Expats, a show based on a 2016 book by Janice YK Lee about the gilded lives of three American women in the city.
Social media has since filled with comments by expats and local Hong Kongers over Kidman's quarantine exemption -- and the decision to film a series about the city's wealthy foreign elite at a time when China is purging dissent in the financial hub.
Right then, that's it. My Mum is changing her name to 'Nicole Kidman' and I've just sent my Gulfstream G650 to pick her up, @webbhk, an account popular with expats, wrote on Twitter.
I'm going to make a movie about her visit to HK. It's called, imaginatively, 'My Mum Visits Hong Kong', the account added.
A popular support group on Facebook for people quarantining in Hong Kong also filled with angry comments about how many local and foreign residents have been unable to see relatives overseas for nearly two years because of the rules.
Elizabeth Quat, a pro-Beijing lawmaker, said she had concerns over the quarantine exemption granted by the government to actress Nicole Kidman and that she had received quite a number of complaints from Hong Kong residents.
Quat added that she had asked health officials to address a legislature committee on the issue on Friday.
While quarantine exemptions can be made for some senior executives, they are rare.
HSBC's chairman Mark Tucker just completed the full three weeks of quarantine for arrivals from Britain.
Kidman's exemption came just days after Hong Kong tightened its quarantine rules for multiple countries, throwing the travel plans of many into disarray towards the end of the summer holidays and sparking a shortage of hotel rooms.