Hong Kong on Monday switched from a “3+4” arrangement – three days of compulsory quarantine in designated hotels plus four under home medical surveillance with limited citywide movement – to a “0+3” model.

At the Hong Kong International Airport, passengers were seen hugging loved ones at around 7am after a flight from Taipei landed, the first of 46 arrivals scheduled for the day. The groups headed home or to a hotel without having to wait for results of a polymerase chain reaction test, in accordance with relaxed rules.

Joyful scenes at Hong Kong airport as city welcomes arrivals under ‘0+3’ scheme

During the three days of medical surveillance, arrivals are issued an amber QR code on the government’s risk-exposure “Leave Home Safe” app, which allows them to move around the city but bars them from visiting most premises.

But Hung argued that so long as daily infections did not rebound in the coming weeks, the government could also drop the home medical surveillance rule, while retaining other monitoring tools, such as Covid-19 testing upon arrival and across the first few days, as well as the amber code that would remain in effect until they tested negative for the virus.

“These various measures can ensure that those who are infected will be quarantined at home or in a hotel,” he said. “We definitely have the conditions for ‘0+0’.”

The daily number of imported cases has ranged as high as 244 to as low as 117 this month, with 188 recorded on Monday.

Dr Joseph Tsang Kay-yan, co-chairman of the Medical Association’s advisory committee on communicable diseases, also backed calls for a review of anti-epidemic measures.

“While it is too soon to do away with the mask mandate altogether, a comprehensive review of the local Covid-19 policies is certainly the logical next step after a relaxation of the ones for travellers,” he said.

The government could drop the requirement that every resident in a building be screened for the virus whenever cases were found, as the practice was no longer cost-effective, Tsang argued, pointing to what he called the “hefty” HK$10,000 (US$1,273) fine for non-compliance.

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But the Health Bureau told the Post it had “gradually” reduced the use of such restriction testing notices, citing the “latest epidemic developments”. It added it would adhere to five principles in combating the pandemic, including “not lying flat” when adjusting its policies.

Respiratory medicine specialist Dr Leung Chi-chiu said sewage testing could also be scaled back and should only trigger compulsory screening orders for residential blocks if a “strong localised signal” was detected.

Leung agreed with Hung that caps on dining in restaurants and bars could be dropped. As the local Covid-19 situation had stabilised, rapid antigen test requirements for banquets and dining parties with more than eight people simply served to “stifle” businesses, he said.

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Inbound travellers to Hong Kong excited about end to hotel quarantine after 2 years

Inbound travellers to Hong Kong excited about end to hotel quarantine after 2 years

While the catering industry has long called for such easing, the city’s shift to the “0+3” arrangement has raised a fresh concern over business demand. Simon Wong Ka-wo, president of the Hong Kong Federation of Restaurants and Related Trades, warned the end to hotel quarantine would put more pressure on local catering businesses as residents opted to travel overseas.

Wong urged the government to relax social-distancing measures on eateries, including easing the cap on the number of diners per table from eight to 12, and scrapping the attendance limit for banquets or relaxing it from 120 people to 240 or 360.

Noting tourists once accounted for 8 per cent of his industry’s business, or about HK$10 billion annually, Wong urged authorities to change to the “0+0” arrangement to lure more tourists to the city.

Hong Kong last relaxed social-distancing curbs in May, including easing the diner cap per table from four to eight and extending evening restaurant service hours.

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The Post has also learned the Innovation, Technology and Industry Bureau will announce on Tuesday how parents can obtain and store a proof of inoculation for their children aged five to 11 on the “Leave Home Safe” app to enter premises covered by the vaccine pass.

The children will need to have proof of vaccination with at least one Covid-19 shot starting this Friday, and two shots will be required if their first one was administered more than three months ago starting on November 30.

Separately, Prince of Wales Hospital in Sha Tin said it had uncovered a cluster of 18 infections involving staff in its intensive care unit, but none of the infected had attended any large social gatherings. No patients had been listed as close contacts and hospital operations were unaffected, it said.

The city’s Covid-19 tally stands at 1,749,534 cases, with 10,128 related fatalities.

Meanwhile, a woman, 25, was jailed for two weeks and a man, 24, placed on probation for a year for providing false information on an online government platform for the public to declare Covid-19 infections, the first two convictions relating to abuse of the site.

Police said they welcomed the court’s rulings and believed they would have a deterrent effect. The force said six such cases had been referred to it since the platform started operating.

It said the woman and the man were arrested in April for filling in fake information or uploading a positive rapid antigen test result from another person on the platform.

The woman pleaded guilty to two charges of giving false information to a health officer or authorised officer in West Kowloon Court on Friday before being sentenced to the jail term.

The man admitted a similar charge and two other charges of resisting or obstructing a public officer before he was given 12 months’ probation at Eastern Court on Monday.

Additional reporting by Danny Mok