Lawmakers welcome converting the current LeaveHomeSafe App into a real-name color-coded health-code system, which limits individuals’ access to different premises by indicating their risk of infection. Some also brought up a number of system flaws and suggested how to remedy them.
Medical sector lawmaker David Lam Tzit-yuen said on Tuesday that although the new system may not immediately reduce the number of Covid-19 cases, it will help overseas arrivals by shortening their stay in the quarantine hotels.
Speaking on a radio program this morning, Lam said the current “LeaveHomeSafe” system’s vaccine pass doesn’t account for people’s confirmed Covid diagnosis.
“If a person infected with Covid still meets the vaccine pass requirements, they can still scan their vaccine pass and enter any places they want. This just doesn’t make sense,” he said, adding that the vaccine pass should be temporarily disabled for Covid patients.
Another lawmaker, Michael Tien Puk-sun, welcomed the new measures but added that confirmed Covid patients must wear electronic wristbands.
However, he noted that the government should ensure they have sufficient manpower to check and prosecute people who don’t follow the new rules.
He also questioned why restaurants need a vaccine pass to enter while public transportation doesn’t require citizens to show their vaccine pass.
Separately, Tien stressed that simply following the mainland in launching a real-name system for contact tracing will look like Hong Kong is doing it “for show.”
He recommended authorities retain the vaccine pass but with extra functions, including disabling the vaccine pass temporarily for people who test positive for Covid-19 - which would be similar to a real-name system.
Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu stressed on Tuesday that the health code, which is being introduced, will not be used for any purposes other than tackling the epidemic.
He added that the red code is intended to identify people who have been infected and they should not be going around to spread the virus. And the yellow code is to target very small and well defined group of people, who are now being kept in a quarantine hotel.
“We introduce this yellow code for them when we design measures to allow them to have some limited activities, so that business can continue in a much normal way, and we need some identification method,” Lee said.
“That is the whole purpose of the red and yellow codes...There may be some misinformation which we will need to address very quickly so that everybody knows what we are doing,” he said.
Michael Tien Puk-sun
