Coronavirus: Hong Kong may consider adding tracking function on ‘Leave Home Safe’ app to boost contact tracing, health chief says
- Health chief Sophia Chan says government will review how to improve contact tracing, but pressing priority is to track those affected by recent chains of infections
- City may also have to resort to home quarantine if places at isolation facilities run out, she adds, as experts warn new wave of Omicron infections could turn into ‘tsunami’
As experts warned the latest Omicron infections could turn into a “tsunami”, Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee on Saturday also said the city might have to resort to home quarantine if places at isolation facilities ran out.
Health authorities had devoted more manpower to identifying people who might have been exposed to the virus by several chains of infections in the city recently, she said.
“We would of course look to the future and review how to improve contact tracing and whether there is a need to have tracking functions on the ‘Leave Home Safe’ app, although our pressing priority now is to focus on tracing current cases,” she said, referring to the mobile application.
Adding a tracking ability to the app would be controversial – some Hongkongers are already sceptical the government is handling the data as claimed.
Using the app is mandatory to enter all government buildings and most public venues, including restaurants and cinemas. Patrons scan QR codes upon arrival, creating a log of the places they have been but without collecting personal data or tracking their movements in real time. The government has repeatedly offered reassurances that the data is only saved on users’ mobile devices in an encrypted format.
But some residents have opted to carry a second mobile phone devoted solely to using the app, rather than installing it on their main one as they fear the programme will access their personal information. In November, police arrested three civil servants and two others for using a fake version of the app.
Residents voiced similar privacy concerns last month over the city’s separate health code, which will be required to cross the border to mainland China once a long-awaited quarantine-free travel scheme launches.
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Users will have to export their visitation records from the “Leave Home Safe” app and upload them to the new health code’s webpage. They must also provide personal information including their real name, ID number, date of birth, proof of address and a valid Hong Kong phone number for registration.
Those using the new health code will then have to transfer their details to the mainland health code app.
The mainland version tracks users’ whereabouts via mobile phone signal data from three major telecoms companies, namely China Telecom, China Unicom and China Mobile.
Democratic Party member Ramon Yuen Hoi-man, who specialises in medical policy, warned that adding a tracking function to the “Leave Home Safe” app could undermine people’s privacy.
Yuen saw no need for the government to expand the current scope of the app, given it had been successful in identifying cases in the past, but he suggested a few criteria if the government insisted on pushing ahead.
“There has to be a public consultation, an elaborate explanation on its ground and, more importantly, its source code,” said the treasurer of the city’s largest opposition party.
Hong Kong has confirmed 223 Omicron cases, the vast majority of them imported, but a new wave of the pandemic triggered by infected aircrew members flouting home isolation rules could drastically increase the number infections involving the variant.
Authorities appeared to have encountered difficulties nailing down a long list of guests who attended a birthday party of a prominent pro-Beijing figure on Monday after one of them was confirmed as infected. Dozens of government officials and lawmakers who attended were sent into quarantine.
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Chan said the initial estimate of just over 100 guests had ballooned to 180 people. About 180 additional people tied to other groups involving infections, including 30 from a kindergarten and 93 domestic helpers, have been ordered into quarantine. Roughly a quarter of the 4,600 rooms in quarantine facilities have been filled.
“The close contacts became overwhelming,” the minister said. “We may have to consider home quarantine ... Let’s hope we won’t reach that stage.”
The option has always been considered less desirable by communicable disease experts given Hong Kong’s cramped living space.
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Chan said authorities had already engaged three hotels as backup in case quarantine spaces at the government’s Penny’s Bay facility filled up.
The party, held to celebrate the birthday of Witman Hung Wai-man, a delegate of the National People’s Congress and a principal liaison officer for Hong Kong at the Shenzhen Qianhai Authority, snowballed into a scandal for the administration after the ministers for home affairs, immigration, police, as well as the anti-graft agency, were found to have attended.
The party took place two days before the government ratcheted up social-distancing restrictions.
Chan declined to directly address whether officials should be held responsible, saying only that the situation “warrants a reflection”.
