Health-code upgrade key to open borders

Beijing will not reopen borders with Hong Kong if the city's health-code system comes only with a voluntary upload of users' whereabouts, says the SAR's delegate to the National People's Congress Standing Committee, Tam Yiu-chung.

Tam said yesterday said he is not optimistic about border reopening if the SAR government only asks people to declare voluntarily where they had been because mainland authorities will not accept that.

He criticized SAR authorities for failing to act in accordance with mainland standards despite wanting to reopen the borders.

Tam's remarks came hours after Secretary for Innovation and Technology Alfred Sit Wing-hang said he had submitted proposals on the health code system to mainland authorities, including an option for people to check the government's list of high-risk areas and voluntarily upload their footprints before crossing borders.

In a television interview, Sit said his bureau has been looking into upgrading its system for cross-border travelers, which at the moment records only their personal information, negative Covid-19 test results and health declaration.

To ensure travelers had not gone to any high-risk place before crossing the border, the government is looking into adding new functions to compare travelers' whereabouts with the high-risk areas listed by the system, Sit said.

He said there are many ways for travelers to do the comparison, including requiring them to check whether they have been to high-risk places by themselves and make a declaration.

People can also be required to upload all places they have been to and a government computer system will check if those places are dangerous, Sit said.

Another proposal is to use the LeaveHomeSafe whereabouts recording mobile app by uploading users' information on the app to the health code system upon their approval.

"But we have to consider that the LeaveHomeSafe app cannot be used at all places because some premises, including residences, do not have a QR code for the app. So the app is still an assistive tool," he said.

"Using technology is not a problem. The most important thing is to make whereabouts recording easy for citizens," Sit said, adding that authorities are technically ready for all proposals.

Sit said it is not impossible to establish a health code similar to the one in the mainland, which requires people to scan the code whenever they enter public premises, including restaurants and malls, public transport and their residential estates. The mainland system is so stringent that only users with a green code are allowed to enter public places, while those with yellow and red codes - close contacts of Covid patients or travelers from high-risk areas - will have to stay at home.

But Sit said different jurisdictions are subject to different social factors and may have different contact-tracing methods.

He said a report on the update of the health code system has been submitted to the Food and Health Bureau and handed to mainland experts for review.

Sit added he is open to all proposals and mainland experts will decide which proposal will be implemented.

Tam said people will accept the health-code system if only those who wish to cross borders are required to upload their footprints.

Earlier, he had received notification from the central government asking him not to attend the Beijing meeting, from tomorrow to Saturday, citing the latest unknown-source infection involving an airport freight worker on October 8.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong recorded three imported cases from Kyrgyzstan and the Philippines yesterday, taking the city's tally to 12,295 cases with 213 deaths.

All three cases carried the L452R mutant strain present in the Delta variant.

Two men from the Philippines had received both jabs of the mainland-made Sinovac vaccine.

wallis.wang@singtaonewscorp.com

Editorial: Tam reveals key border message