Hong Kong ‘vaccine passport’ a future possibility, but city will first add cinemas, fitness centres to list of venues requiring proof of vaccination

Health secretary Sophia Chan and government adviser Yuen Kwok-yung both say boosting flagging inoculation rates necessary to make passport a reality

More restaurants, meanwhile, could begin requiring use of ‘Leave Home Safe’ contact-tracing app, while city confirms two new imported Covid-19 cases

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Hong Kong fitness centres could be the next private businesses asked to demand proof of vaccination for entry. Photo: Nora Tam

Published: 4:19pm, 13 Nov 2021Updated: 11:17pm, 13 Nov 2021

Hong Kong’s health minister has raised the longer-term possibility of introducing a local “vaccine passport” after most of the population has been inoculated for Covid-19, but will first add cinemas and fitness centres to an existing list of venues that require customers to provide their vaccination records.

Secretary of Food and Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee on Saturday said determining which local businesses might be asked to begin demanding proof of vaccination – a step aimed at further incentivising residents to take the jab – would depend on a variety of risk factors, including how long customers typically stayed on the premises.

“We’ve already started in Type D restaurants, and venues like karaoke parlours. If we are to put this requirement in place [elsewhere], I think the most important thing is for venue operators to be cooperative, and for people who have not been vaccinated for no reason to get vaccinated, so the entire society is protected against Covid-19,” Chan said.

The vaccination passport was “something the government would like to promote and take forward”, Chan said, but only after a certain proportion of the population had been inoculated against Covid-19.

Major gym chains such as Pure Fitness already offer a mask-free training environment at some branches where all staff and patrons must be fully vaccinated, although they still operate a number of facilities for those who have not been inoculated.

Chan said health authorities were also in talks with the catering sector to expand the mandatory use of the “Leave Home Safe” contact-tracing app to Group B restaurants.

Restaurants are categorised from A to D, with those in the former operating under the strictest curbs in terms of operating hours and social-distancing rules and the ones of the latter group enjoying the greatest freedoms, as all patrons and staff must be fully vaccinated.

Hong Kong confirmed two new Covid-19 infections on Saturday, involving arrivals from Pakistan and Mauritius, with the latter involving a mutant strain of the virus.