Exclusive | Coronavirus Hong Kong: launch of quarantine-free travel to mainland China ‘brought forward to early December’, but numbers tightly limited
- Travellers can enter mainland without undergoing quarantine from first week of next month, under accelerated reopening likely to coincide with China’s Olympic medallists visiting city
- But the number of people granted the exemption will be restricted to a few hundred per day initially, mainland sources say
The first phase of the much-anticipated border reopening revealed by sources on Thursday is the result of weeks of negotiations between the two sides, and is likely to coincide with China’s Olympic medallists visiting the city.
Two official sources from the mainland told the Post the launch had been brought forward to early next month from an original start date of December 17.
One of them said the accelerated timeline followed approval from the top ranks of China’s leadership, which helped “smoothen discussions, build consensus and speed up the implementation of necessary software and hardware”.
The insider said the arrangement would start with a daily quota limiting quarantine-free travel to “a few hundred” people. Numbers would be increased to “a few thousand” in the following months once any teething problems were addressed and a system of testing and tracking had been introduced, he added.
Hong Kong’s Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau refused to comment on the plan.
Earlier this month, Beijing insiders said a full border reopening could happen before June as part of a three-step process starting in mid-December.