Coronavirus: authorities across border ‘have not insisted Hong Kong adopt mainland China-style system for contact tracing’
- They have so far refrained from spelling out specific preconditions of any kind out of consideration for constraints on local officials, source says
- New rules at airport will mandate testing every three days for vaccinated workers who handle cargo, deal with passengers or drive travellers to isolation
They refrained out of respect for the constraints city officials might face, according to a Hong Kong source familiar with recent meetings of experts from both sides on measures that would pave the way for restoring travel links interrupted by the pandemic.
Rather than specific measures, city officials were given more general advice to improve and strengthen their epidemic control work, he said, adding that the Hong Kong technology chief’s suggestion over the weekend about a voluntary contact-tracing system was only a first step in figuring out an acceptable way forward.
“What Alfred Sit Wing-hang said on Sunday was what the government can think of so far. He did not say that these were the best [ideas] or the best that we can do,” the insider said.
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Still, the source added that it was technically possible for Hong Kong to adopt the mainland’s health code, or a similar system that required mandatory tracing, but such an app would not automatically ease all of the mainland’s concerns.
“First, the mainland does not just rely on an app to trace contacts. It also relies on big data, surveillance systems and SIM cards that are registered with residents’ full names. But we don’t have these in Hong Kong,” he said.
“Also, if this system can trace the whereabouts of those residents who want to travel to the mainland, you still need to compare the data associated with confirmed cases.
“Mandatory citywide contact tracing is just not practical in Hong Kong … You cannot make a law which says all residents must download this app and carry their phone with them wherever they go – not to mention the fact that not everyone has a phone.”
The source offered the clarifications a day after Hong Kong’s sole delegate to the National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, Tam Yiu-chung, warned mainland authorities were unlikely to accept any Covid-19 health code-sharing proposal allowing quarantine-free movement across the border unless travellers submitted contact-tracing information as a mandatory requirement.
Tam was himself barred from travelling to a standing committee meeting in the capital by mainland health authorities citing the risk of infection posed by a single, untraceable coronavirus case found recently in Hong Kong.
Noting that Tam spoke for the city’s pro-Beijing camp, rather than the government itself, the source allowed that there did appear to be some confusion about the requirements for reopening the border.
However, he added, even though Tam was not allowed to visit Beijing, that did not mean Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor would similarly be barred in the future.
“It depends on the government of the place [they are visiting], as it’s responsible for its people’s health,” he said. “It also depends on the nature of the activity – Tam was barred from attending a meeting that was unrelated to Hong Kong, but if other officials or state leaders wanted to meet Lam, that’s a totally different matter.”
Top Hong Kong delegate barred from travelling to Beijing over Covid-19 concerns
A mainland source also played down the travel ban on Tam, saying Beijing was merely being “more cautious” with the coming Communist Party plenum right around the corner, adding that it would not affect negotiations on the border reopening.
Technology minister Sit revealed on Sunday that the government had floated three options for strengthening the city’s contact-tracing efforts.
The first would involve making users responsible for recording their own whereabouts. The second would let the public check whether they had visited any high-risk places via a list released by the government. And the third would allow cross-border travellers to transfer information from their local “Leave Home Safe” risk-exposure app to the proposed cross-border health code platform.
Tam, however, brushed off the proposals, saying the mainland was unlikely to accept anything “loose or reliant on self-responsibility”.
The Food and Health Bureau and the Innovation and Technology Bureau did not respond to inquiries on Monday.
Macau’s health code system offers one example of the tack Hong Kong might take. It involves an app that generates coloured QR codes that indicate a person’s level of risk based on their health status, possible contact with Covid-19 patients and travel history.
People are required to display the codes upon entering large public venues.
The system, which does not have any tracking function, also allows users with negative Covid-test results to switch over to Guangdong’s health code system when they cross the border, but the two apps are not linked.
With Hong Kong keen to meet Beijing’s expectations for reopening – general though they may be – the city will soon ramp up Covid-19 testing for workers at its airport and quarantine hotels, as well as drivers taking travellers from one to the other, the Post has learned.
The new testing regime, set to take effect within the next week, is the latest attempt to tighten border-control measures – already some of the strictest in the world – and cut off any remaining avenues of transmission.
Boosting testing frequency would appear to address a need to reduce the chances of infection among high-risk groups – one of three areas of improvement for the city’s anti-pandemic strategy identified by John Lee Ka-chiu, Hong Kong’s No 2 official, after a meeting last month with mainland representatives to discuss the border reopening.
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The other two areas of concern were screening requirements for inbound travellers, and the city’s quarantine system, with Lee saying at the time that improvements on those fronts would pave the way for further discussions on quarantine-free travel.
A source said the new plan to increase testing frequency was intended to target those who were at higher risk of exposure to the virus because of their direct contact with incoming travellers and goods.
Frontline airport workers, such as those handling cargo, dealing face-to-face with passengers or cleaning airline cabins, will be required to be tested every three days under the proposed measure. The Airport Authority has said there are about 8,000 employees in this targeted group.
Current rules require those workers to be fully vaccinated and undergo testing every seven days. Staff unable to be vaccinated for medical reasons are not allowed to work in those roles.
The frequency of testing for fully vaccinated staff at the city’s 36 designated quarantine hotels and the drivers who transport travellers to the facilities, meanwhile, will go from every seven days to every three.
Workers in those roles who have yet to be vaccinated – currently subject to screening every three days – will soon be tested every day.
The mainland side has been cautious so far about any opening up, concerned in particular about Hong Kong’s continued reporting of imported cases.
Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Erick Tsang Kwok-wai said Hong Kong was still waiting to hear about further arrangements for a second meeting between officials and experts on the topic of reopening the border.
“If necessary, the mainland experts may come to Hong Kong to have field visits to see for themselves how our system is working,” Tsang said.
Lee Wing-foo, chairman of the Staffs and Workers Union of Hong Kong Civil Airlines, described the coming changes to the testing regimen as “drastic” and “tough”, warning they could drive employees away and worsen shortages in the industry.
“More than 60 per cent of our members are already vaccinated and many have said they will leave if they can’t meet the testing requirements and have to be penalised or fined,” Lee said, adding that “many vacancies in customer services, cargo handling and others are already unfilled”.
Lee urged the government to extend service hours at the two testing centres at the airport’s passenger and cargo terminals, and to set up new ones for airline repair and catering employees.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong on Monday confirmed five new Covid-19 cases, all imported and involving arrivals from Britain, the Philippines, Ghana and Nigeria.
Those infections brought the city’s confirmed tally to 12,299, with 213 related deaths. Fewer than five people tested preliminary-positive.
Separately, Qatar Airways was banned from operating its Doha-to-Hong Kong route from Monday until October 31, after two separate flights last week were each found to be carrying two passengers who tested positive for Covid-19 on arrival.
Additional reporting by Victor Ting, Natalie Wong and Ng Kang-chung
