Coronavirus Hong Kong: ‘Macau model’ raised at Shenzhen talks on border reopening; city confirms 8 new cases

Experts from Hong Kong, mainland China wrap up their first meeting on ‘gradual and orderly’ reopening of border

Mainland delegation acknowledges city’s success in achieving ‘zero Covid’, but source says ‘some things are missing’ from its approach

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Emulating Macau’s gradual approach was one option discussed at a meeting on reopening the border with mainland China. Photo: Sam Tsang

Published: 3:36pm, 26 Sep 2021Updated: 11:34pm, 26 Sep 2021

Experts and officials from Hong Kong and mainland China on Sunday wrapped up their first meeting exploring a “orderly” reopening of the border, with the option of emulating Macau’s earlier gradual resumption of quarantine-free travel being considered, the Post has learned.

Chief Secretary John Lee Ka-chiu led a delegation that included Health Secretary Sophia Chan Siu-chee, Secretary for Innovation and Technology Alfred Sit Wing-hang and government pandemic adviser David Hui Shu-cheong to the sit-down in Shenzhen, which was presided over by Huang Liuquan, deputy director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, according to a government statement issued Sunday evening.

The statement noted that mainland experts, including ones from the national health commission, acknowledged the city’s hard work in achieving “zero Covid”, but one insider told the Post that “some things are missing” from Hong Kong’s approach.

“Those things would need to be further discussed, and the Macau experience would be taken into account too,” he said.

The source said much of the full-day meeting in Shenzhen – the first edition of an expert dialogue proposed by city leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor earlier this month – was devoted to discussion of Macau’s approach to the pandemic, and how it could be applied to Hong Kong.

Macau resumed quarantine-free travel with the neighbouring mainland city of Zhuhai in May last year following the mutual recognition of a risk-based health code system that takes into account an individual’s condition, contact with Covid-19 patients and travel history. Travellers must also provide a negative coronavirus test taken no more than seven days before departure.

Asked what was meant by the “orderly” reopening of the border, the source said: “In Macau, the border with mainland China did not open all at once; there’s a quota and the city was not open to the whole of China immediately.”

He declined to say whether Hong Kong would be required to enter into a similar health code arrangement.