Coronavirus: Hong Kong on track to further relax Covid curbs next week and may ease more restrictions ahead of 25th anniversary of handover
- City leader says she could allow for ‘a more relaxed environment’ to celebrate the anniversary, and urges public not to ‘overreact’ on the rise and fall in daily numbers
- She says incoming chief executive John Lee will need to revisit conditions for reopening the border with mainland China
Hong Kong will relax more social-distancing curbs on May 19 despite the fluctuating daily number of Covid-19 cases, the city’s leader has revealed, while hinting the government may further ease restrictions ahead of celebrations marking the 25th anniversary of the city’s handover on July 1.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor on Tuesday also said incoming leader John Lee Ka-chiu would need to revisit the prerequisites for resuming quarantine-free travel with mainland China, including whether the city should continue to aim for zero infections.
Pointing to the smooth results of last week’s round of social-distancing easing, Lam confirmed the city would take further steps on Thursday next week.
“We saw a positive response from the earlier relaxations on May 5,” she said. “We are happy to see life is returning to normal.”
Under the next round, bars, party rooms, karaoke lounges, mahjong parlours, nightclubs and cruise bookings will reopen. Bars, closed since January, will be allowed to operate until 2am with up to four people per table, while restaurants can extend service hours from 10pm to midnight.
The city has been gradually returning to normal as Covid-19 infections continue to fall. Health authorities on Tuesday confirmed 273 cases, including 27 imported ones, as well as five more deaths related to the virus.
Lam noted the 233 infections recorded on Monday were the fewest in three months, but she also acknowledged the numbers in recent weeks had been unpredictable.
“Let us not overreact on the rise and fall of daily infections,” she said. “Fluctuation is inevitable when we see such a low number of cases.”
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She also pointed to two key indicators that showed infection levels remained low. The latest virus reproduction rate stood at 0.6431, meaning one Covid-19 patient could infect less than one person, while the daily point-prevalence on Monday was around 0.32 per cent. This reflects the estimated proportion of the population infected on a particular day, including new cases and existing ones that have not yet recovered.
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The outgoing leader added she was inclined to further ease social-distancing rules for residents so they could more easily take part in celebrations for the 25th anniversary of the city’s return to China.
“At this time, I think a more prudent approach is to observe a bit,” Lam said. “If there is the space and conditions, I am inclined to allow for the celebration of the handover’s 25th anniversary in a more relaxed environment. But this cannot be announced today. We have to let the second phase complete its safe landing first.”
While Hong Kong has eased entry curbs for international arrivals, its border with the mainland remains largely shut as the nation aggressively pursues a strategy of keeping Covid-19 cases to a minimum. Lam said the government would continue to make the resumption of quarantine-free travel a priority, adding a previous requirement was for the city to achieve no local infections “for a while”.
“The first thing we need to do – if it happens within my term or John [Lee] has to do it within the beginning of his term – is to engage mainland authorities and to understand whether what we have discussed last September to December still stands as the prerequisite,” she said.
The city came tantalisingly close to re-establishing quarantine-free travel with the mainland late last year. Lee, then chief secretary and the city’s lead negotiator for the talks, said Hong Kong had met the “basic requirements” for the reopening in late November, following a stretch without any community infections and tightened quarantine requirements for arrivals.
In December, the city launched its version of the national health code, which stored proof of Covid-19 tests and vaccination in line with the demand of mainland authorities. But the reopening failed to materialise before the fifth wave of infections hit the city in January.
Elsewhere in the city, a cluster of infections tied to a Yuen Long restaurant grew, raising the spectre of the sort of superspreading events that fuelled previous spikes in cases. Eight more infected people were tied to the eatery on Tuesday, adding to the nine already identified.
Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the Centre for Health Protection’s communicable disease branch, said most patients had mild symptoms despite being generally older, which could be due to their two or more vaccine shots. Testing had been ordered for nearly 200 patrons.
The cluster has triggered calls for new requirements to monitor restaurants, such as requiring diners to take rapid tests and suspending operations at any premise where infections are identified.
But infectious diseases expert Dr Ho Pak-leung dismissed the need for such disruptions to normal life, pointing to the city’s increased vaccination rate and availability of isolation facilities.
“If you request all diners in Hong Kong to do rapid antigen tests (RAT) before entering restaurants, it would be an out-of-touch arrangement,” Ho said, arguing the rule would be equivalent to universal screening.
Simon Wong kit-lung, honorary chairman of the Institute of Dining Art, agreed that requesting diners to provide negative RAT results would be the same as mass screening and bring inconvenience to the public.
“For the general public, needing a RAT test for [a quick meal] is unrealistic,” he said, adding staff at eateries would also be unable to verify test results.
But Ho warned the public should still expect cases to surface given more people were eating out and taking their masks off for certain activities.
One way to improve vigilance as society returned to normal would be implementing the next stage of the vaccine pass ahead of schedule, he suggested.
The scheme requires residents to show proof of vaccination or a valid medical exemption to enter most public places, and the number of shots required has increased in stages since late February. Under the final phase due to take effect on May 31, residents must have received three doses, but Ho said the date should be brought forward.
“[May 31] is too late and has no coordination with the loosening of social-distancing measures and the reopening of premises,” Ho said.
But Federation of Trade Union lawmaker Bill Tang Ka-biu questioned whether residents who had only taken two jabs could complete the third even by the end of the month. If they missed the deadline, the loss of business could hit small firms hard, Tang argued.
Separately, Hongkong Post said it would launch an online booking service next week for handling non-local Covid-19 vaccination records, recovery of those records and the provisional vaccine pass. Users can choose in advance the date, time and designated post office for their visit.
The same-day ticket arrangement will remain available at the 18 designated post offices, with the daily quota increased to 3,100.
The city’s Covid-19 tally stood at 1,207,091 infections, with 9,352 related fatalities.
Additional reporting by Edith Lin
