The Hong Kong government has announced a further easing of the measures: from today (14) it will cancel the “travel with peace of mind” scan, but still maintains the obligation to show the “vaccine pass” when entering restaurants; cancel the “yellow code” restrictions on immigrants; reduce the number of notices issued to residential buildings, exemption from mandatory testing for children under 3, and regular testing for 11 groups of practitioners; home isolation without wearing electronic bracelets and other measures.
Lu Chongmao, director of the Medical and Health Bureau, said on a radio program this morning that the adjustment measures do not mean the epidemic is over. He reiterated that it is just a cancellation of the scan. The program can still register for nucleic acid testing and show the vaccine pass. It is not a complete abandonment. It appeals to the public not to cancel the related application program. The vaccination pass is an important measure to promote the public to get injections, the aim is to encourage injections, not to promote the vaccination pass. He further stressed that the new corona virus still poses risks to the public, especially the elderly and young children, and urged the public to still wear masks and take protective measures. Even if the new corona has evolved into an endemic disease, that doesn’t mean that prevention and control can be completely reversed, including the need to continue implementing vaccinations.
When asked whether the Hong Kong government’s adaptation of epidemic prevention measures will cooperate with the mainland’s agreement that there is no need to scan the health code this time. Hong Kong prevention and control also need to consider the situation on the continent. Lu also said that the epidemic situation in Hong Kong is currently in a flat trend, but the number of confirmed cases is still high. Whether social distancing measures will be further eased, or the transmission chain will be widened to increase the risk. In terms of foreign defense, nucleic acid tests for people entering the country will continue to be maintained. Since new virus variants still appear from time to time and mainly flow into Hong Kong through imports from abroad, we cannot relax . The authorities can monitor the situation through nucleic acid testing. If the number of people entering the country increases and it is necessary to adjust the relevant policies, the authorities will announce in due course.
Regarding the gradual reduction of mandatory inspection announcements to residential buildings, Lu Chongmao said that the general direction is to reduce the scope of mandatory inspections and the number of announcements issued every day. Whereas most of the infections of small children involves family members, children under the age of 3 are exempt. The authorities will decide whether to issue a mandatory inspection notice depending on whether there is an obvious cluster outbreak in the building in question.
