Coronavirus: expert delegation from mainland China arrives in Hong Kong to inspect pandemic-control measures
- Four-day visit involving National Health Commission officials comes as both sides prepare for first phase of reopening the border
- Separately, 111 Cathay Pacific staff allowed to leave government quarantine facility after officials find no risk of exposure to 3 infected pilots
The officials from the National Health Commission and experts from Guangdong province, Shenzhen and Zhuhai are expected to visit departments and facilities involved in the city’s fight against the pandemic and attend meetings with local officials over the course of their four-day visit.
Chief Secretary John Lee Ka-chiu said the tour, which would be joined by officials from the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office and the liaison office, was an important follow-up on two rounds of talks held in September and earlier this month.
The local government would continue with its zero-Covid policy and aggressively keep out imported infections to ensure the border could fully reopen, Lee said.
The Post earlier reported that residents would be allowed to enter the mainland without undergoing quarantine starting from early December, about two weeks sooner than originally planned. The number of people allowed to cross each day will be limited to a few hundred at first but that number is expected to grow to several thousand.
Hong Kong has managed to keep the number of coronavirus cases and related deaths extremely low through some of the world’s strictest pandemic-control measures. All but three of the city’s border checkpoints have been shut for about 20 months.
