Restrictions eased on amber-code arrivals

Overseas arrivals who enter the SAR with an amber health code designation can visit venues for mask-on activities, including theme parks and hair salons, from next Thursday.

The latest relaxation of Covid restrictions were labeled "controlled risks" at a briefing yesterday when Libby Lee Ha-yun, the under secretary for health, said eating and drinking will also be allowed in outdoor areas and spectator stands of racecourses and sports venues.

But arrivals from overseas are for their first three days still banned from entering venues with active vaccine pass checking, including restaurants, bars and gyms, where mask-off activities are held.

Lee said over the past two weeks Hong Kong has recorded 4,000-5,000 infections and up to a dozen of deaths daily. And imported cases - around 400 to 500 daily - continue to comprise 10 percent of the caseload.

Authorities yesterday revealed 5,697 new infections, including 5,202 local cases and 495 imported. There were also nine deaths.

But as outbreaks have remained stable and public hospitals have not been overstretched, Lee said risk assessments pointed to room for more relaxations.

"It's a balance between the risks we face and the measures we use to control the risks," she said.

As a result, authorities will downgrade vaccine pass policies in low-risk premises - where people are usually masked - and no longer require active checking by operators. But visitors still need to scan their LeaveHomeSafe QR code upon entering such places.

They include theme parks, game centers, mahjong houses, religious sites, museums and hair salons.

That opens the way for amber code holders - overseas arrivals on medical surveillance during their first three days in the SAR - to enter these places.

Currently, private wet market operators do not need to scan visitors' vaccine passes, and to make rules consistent active checking in public wet markets will be ditched from next Thursday.

"For outdoor activities, and given ventilation is better outdoors, we saw room for relaxation too," Lee said, so eating and drinking will be allowed in spectator stands and open areas at racecourses and sports grounds.

Over 40 country park campsites under the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department and the Pui O campsite under the Leisure and Cultural Services Department also reopens next Thursday.

On whether authorities will next ditch the mask mandate, Lee cited a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine showing a rebound of 45 more infections per 1,000 students in certain states in the United States that no longer had compulsory masking.

But yesterday's easing announcements were not enough for all, with the catering and beauty sectors upset that amber code holders are still banned from their businesses.

Simon Wong Ka-wo, president of the Hong Kong Federation of Restaurants and Related Trades, remarked: "It's confusing to travelers if amber code holders can get into shopping malls but not restaurants."

And the Federation of Beauty Industry's founding chairman, Nelson Ip Sai-hung, said the two-tier vaccine pass requirements with and without active checking are "too complicated."

And the president of the Chinese Manufacturers' Association of Hong Kong, Allen Shi Lop-tak, said the business sector is disappointed the inbound travel restrictions cannot be further relaxed to 0+0, which would be the best way to tell the world Hong Kong is back.