Coronavirus: Hong Kong may adopt colour codes for infected patients and quarantined arrivals within weeks; new airport declaration rule coming
- Controversial QR codes, similar to what mainland China uses, could allow government to shorten mandatory stays at hotels
- Health authorities confirm 4,250 new cases, including 186 imported ones, and eight deaths linked to virus
The administration also announced on Sunday that all arrivals from overseas must complete their Covid-19 health declaration online from Thursday under a new requirement to speed up immigration and quarantine procedures at the airport.
The government is pushing to make the city’s vaccine pass system tied to the “Leave Home Safe” risk-exposure app more effective by identifying infected residents with a red QR code, barring them from public places, and giving arrivals in quarantine a yellow version, restricting their access to certain premises. Two sources familiar with the situation said the codes could be enacted in the coming weeks at the earliest.
But former health minister Dr Ko Wing-man, now a top government adviser, argued the new health code should eventually be extended to cover close contacts of people in both groups.
“[The purpose of the health code] is to identify those infected or who could be infected, so that during the incubation period, which is short, they can be restricted by the yellow code, and cannot go to high-risk places,” he said, referring to restaurants and bars. “They can still use public transport or go to work, as long as they wear a mask.”
Ko, a member of the city leader’s key decision-making body, the Executive Council, added that if the health code system was implemented successfully, the government might shorten arrivals’ quarantine period in government facilities or hotels.
The government is considering allowing returning residents to spend at least some of the week of quarantine at home, and the new code is being touted as a way to better ensure they do not wander out into the community.
Infections have been steadily increasing in recent weeks, and health authorities on Sunday confirmed 4,250 new cases, including 186 imported ones. Eight new deaths linked to the virus were also reported. The city’s Covid-19 tally stands at 1,321,993 cases, with 9,469 related fatalities.
Hong Kong’s daily cases surpass 4,000, health chief to meet Covid advisers
Health minister Lo Chung-mau stoked fears over privacy protection earlier this month when he suggested that the new colour-code system be implemented using real-name registration. But technology chief Sun Dong later dismissed the notion, saying the “Leave Home safe” app already had some real-name functions through users’ vaccine records connected to the app.
One source noted the declaration forms filled out by arrivals also contained essential personal information.
“With incoming travellers asked to fill in declaration forms before they fly, and issued the yellow codes upon arrival, this paves the way for Hong Kong to allow more home quarantine, and further open its international border,” the insider said. “The city cannot wait any longer or it’ll be finished.”
But Ko, who headed the Food and Health Bureau from 2012 to 2017, told a television programme he would support strengthening the real-name registration function of the app.
“Actually through the use of many smartphone applications, we have been providing lots of personal information, such as HKID numbers, to authorities and others. So personally I wouldn’t oppose the idea, but I think we have not reached the stage where it must be done,” Ko said.
Lawmaker Ben Chan Han-pan, of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, said authorities should expand the “Leave Home Safe” app from a tool mostly used by restaurants to screen patrons into an enforcement mechanism that would stop patients and people in quarantine from breaking isolation rules.
Separately, Professor Francis Chan Ka-leung, dean of the Chinese University’s medical faculty, told a radio programme he believed that the daily number of cases could exceed 10,000 soon. The university’s hospital had special wards that could be set aside for coronavirus patients, he noted.
On Sunday, the city saw an increase in Covid-19 hospitalisation numbers, with 1,347 patients being treated, including 26 listed as in critical condition and the same number as seriously ill. Three patients were in intensive care.
“The daily caseloads are at a high level with no signs of drops, and we remind people to follow the Covid-19 control rules,” Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan from the Centre for Health Protection said.
What you need to know about Hong Kong’s new health code system for Covid cases
She added that the death rate for unvaccinated residents aged 80 and above was more than 16 per cent, while for those with three jabs it was 1 per cent.
Dr Larry Lee Lap-yip, a chief manager of the Hospital Authority, said the occupancy rate at paediatric isolation wards stood at 48 per cent, while ICU use in the wards was 50 per cent.
In a separate development, Chuang said there was a chance Hong Kong could see imported cases of monkeypox, but noted most cases around the world involved close contacts of infected people.
Authorities had a contingency plan for handling the disease, and were pursuing ways to obtain the relevant vaccines, she added.
