Executive Councillor Lam Ching-choi has denied that banning visitors from South Korea amounts to discrimination, saying it is unfair to compare it with the mainland and the comparison should be with Hubei, RTHK reports.
"The situation in Hubei is very similar to South Korea now," said the top government adviser. "Under this comparison you will see a lot of similarities, on the matter of how the epidemic evolved, the number of cases per population... all this are very similar."
South Korea with 893 coronavirus cases is now the has the biggest number of cases outside the mainland which now has 77,658 cases and 2,663 deaths. Most of the cases and fatalities are in Hubei.
A majority of the South Korean cases is in the region surrounding southeastern city of Daegu and nearby areas.
The government imposed restrictions on visitors from South Korea from 6:00am today. But the move has attracted some criticism as the Carrie Lam administration had rejected a similar ban on visitors from the mainland, saying it would stigmatise them.
Lam Ching-choi, who is a medical doctor, said the travel ban on South Korea should only be compared with the ban on the coronavirus-stricken Hubei province on January 27.
"I think it’s unfair to compare the treatment to the whole mainland China with South Korea," he said after appearing on a RTHK radio program.
He told RTHK's Janice Wong: "All these epidemic control is basically out of the consideration of scientific data.''
The Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Patrick Nip also defended the move on a different radio show, saying Hong Kong has a closer tie with the mainland than other countries.
The government had earlier stalled calls to close all cross-border checkpoints with the mainland, saying the World Health Organisation guidelines do not recommend it.
The Carrie Lam administration eventually decided to shut all but three border control points to reduce cross-border travellers, and all those returning from the mainland are now to undergo home quarantine for 14 days.
