Today Tuesday Carrie Lam says:
“Even though there are many voices and substantive demands, including those from business groups, especially the international ones and financial institutions, asking the SAR government to relax our measures guarding against imported cases, so that people coming from overseas would not need to be quarantined in hotels or undergo more tests, we refused to give in a single inch.”
Not to get into Kremlinology (although nowadays in HK it's quite relevant), she said "refused", not "refuse." Her English is very good, and I don't think she's confusing tenses. I think she's paving the way for something better, or maybe I'm just hallucinating.