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Chief Executive Carrie Lam meets the press on Tuesday. Photo: Nora Tam

Coronavirus: final details on border reopening ‘to be decided on Thursday’ as mainland Chinese experts wrap up Hong Kong inspection

  • Chief Secretary John Lee will lead delegation to Shenzhen where officials will iron out details for quarantine-free travel
  • Officials at National Health Commission and local Innovation and Technology Bureau also discuss how the two sides will exchange travellers’ health information

Final details on fully reopening the border between Hong Kong and mainland China will be decided at a top-level meeting of officials from both sides on Thursday, the Post has learned.

The talks would focus on the administrative requirements needed to offer quarantine-free travel, including a circuit-breaker mechanism to suspend the scheme in the event of a Covid-19 outbreak, as well as the exact launch day, a source close to the mainland government said on Tuesday.

The city’s No 2 official, Chief Secretary John Lee Ka-chiu, would lead the Hong Kong side in the negotiations scheduled to take place in Shenzhen, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor revealed.

People queue for Sinovac vaccine shots on Tuesday in Sha Tin. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

The meeting was announced as a team of mainland health experts wrapped up a four-day inspection of the city’s efforts to control the spread of the coronavirus that Lam described as helping to pave the way for the final round of talks.

“The experts thoroughly asked about how our Covid-19 measures have been implemented,” she said. “Their visit has been very important in our efforts to strive for a gradual reopening of the border.”

Lam was informed of the coming meeting by the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, whose deputy director Huang Liuquan hosted the previous one on September 26.

Hong Kong residents have been largely cut off from the rest of the nation for roughly 20 months, a separation that has taken a heavy toll on the many families and businesses that rely on quick and easy travel over the border.

The Post previously reported that the scheme would be launched in the first week of December and a daily quota of travellers would be limited to a few hundred, although that figure was expected to eventually rise to several thousand.

When Lam asked about the launch date, Lam only said “the sooner the better” and sought to temper public expectations by noting the cap on daily crossings would increase gradually.

Among the significant risks to be assessed was whether the resumption of quarantine-free travel might introduce new health risks into the community and force an end to the recent resumption of large-scale events in Hong Kong, hence the need for the circuit-breaker mechanism, she added.

Professor David Hui Shu-cheong, a government pandemic adviser who attended the first Shenzhen meeting, said he was informed by the government he would not need to attend on Thursday as officials would not discuss any scientific matters and only “technical issues concerning border opening”.

The mainland delegation, which arrived on Saturday, earlier urged local officials to step up measures to shut out imported cases, including reviewing quarantine exemption arrangements for aircrew, according to sources.

The team on Tuesday visited a community pharmacy in Taikoo Place to understand how medication to treat fevers was sold and a clinic in Heng Fa Chuen, as well as a community vaccination centre in Sheung Wan and a secondary school Hon Wah College in Siu Sai Wan.

Officials working in big data at the National Health Commission and Hong Kong’s Innovation and Technology Bureau, as well as Office of the Government Information Officer, also discussed the design of the new Hong Kong Health Code system, which was needed to supply information about travellers’ Covid-19 status to Guangdong authorities.

An insider familiar with the meeting said that residents hoping to join the quarantine-free travel scheme would need to upload their “Leave Home Safe” app records to the city’s health code system, and the information would then be converted for use by the Guangdong version. Hong Kong’s system would not include any automatic tracking of a person’s movement.

The source close to the mainland authorities said the expert delegation would report their inspection findings to top leaders of Beijing and Guangdong province.

As part of the drive to align the city’s pandemic-control measures with the mainland’s zero-Covid-19 policy, all restaurants and scheduled premises such as cinemas and fitness centres will be required to use the risk-exposure notification app from December 9.

‘Selfish’ mask design blamed in Covid-19 cross infection at Hong Kong quarantine hotel

Starting from December 1, the maximum capacity for cruises will be raised to 75 per cent, up from 50 per cent, while most social-distancing measures will be extended until at least December 8.

Lam, meanwhile, once again urged the public to get vaccinated, saying Hong Kong would find itself in a “very unfavourable situation” if the city’s jab rate consistently lagged behind that of the mainland.

As of Tuesday, 70 per cent of Hongkongers had taken at least one jab of a coronavirus vaccine. About 74 per cent of the mainland’s 1.4 billion population, meanwhile, had taken two doses as of last Friday.

The city on Tuesday confirmed six imported coronavirus infections, with three of the people arriving on a flight from Pakistan via the United Arab Emirates. The other three came from Pakistan via Turkey and the United States.

Hong Kong’s overall tally stood at 12,410 cases, with 213 related deaths.

Separately, rail operator the MTR Corporation said it would extend a fare rebate arrangement by another six months.

The extension will allow riders to continue to enjoy rebates of 3.8 per cent through June of next year if they use contactless Octopus cards or QR code tickets. The move will cost the corporation HK$200 million (US$25.7 million).

Additional reporting by William Zheng and Denise Tsang



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