New Delhi: The authorities in Hong Kong have granted Hollywood star Nicole Kidman an exemption from Covid-19 quarantine and this has not gone down well with the local people, AFP reported Thursday.
Kidman is in Kong Kong for the shooting of Expats, an Amazon series.
Hong Kong, a financial hub, has been able to keep its virus cases low due to some of the strictest quarantine measures for the last 18 months.
People arriving from high-risk countries are mandated to stay in quarantine in a hotel for 21 days, while those coming from lower-risk countries have a seven-day hotel quarantine rule followed by another seven days of self-monitoring, according to reports.
Kidman, however, has been clearly allowed to circumvent all rules as the 54-year-old was seen shopping at a boutique in Central District just two days after her arrival last week.
The Commerce and Economic Development Bureau, however, justified this as it said the Australian actress and others from the film crew had been granted the exemption "to carry out designated professional work".
“The case in discussion has been granted permission to travel to Hong Kong with a quarantine exemption for the purpose of performing designated professional work, taking into account that it is conducive to maintaining the necessary operation and development of Hong Kong’s economy,” the South China Morning Post quoted the bureau as saying.
According to Hong Kong rules, however, those given such an exemption must be tested for Covid thrice over two weeks after their arrival.
According to reports, Kidman arrived in Hong Kong on a private jet from Australia last Thursday and was filmed in the Sai Wan district of the city.
Kidman is an executive producer of the show, Expats, which is based on Janice YK Lee’s 2016 book The Expatriates, about the lives of three rich American women in the city.
Since her arrival in Hong Kong, social media has been filled with comments over her quarantine exemption.
"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," user @webbhk 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 handle added in another post.
“So we have HK residents who can't come back if not vaccinated (and even then, with 2-3 weeks quarantine) but Nicole Kidman can just enter like this? It's disgusting!” another user posted.
The exemption to Kidman came just days after Hong Kong tightened its Covid quarantine rules for many countries, reports said.