GGRAsia – HK mulls e-health cert for its people, to ease border trips

HK mulls e-health cert for its people, to ease border trips

May 18, 2020 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck

Hong Kong is considering an electronic self-certification system for its residents in order to try to get them exempted from the existing two-way quarantine rules applicable when they visit and return from either Macau or the adjacent mainland Chinese province of Guangdong.

The information was given by Hong Kong’s Secretary for Food and Health, Sophia Chan Siu-chee, in an interview with the South China Morning Post newspaper, published on Saturday.

Ms Chan said Hong Kong was mulling either its own self-certification system for citizens, or adopting one used by another administration. That was understood to be a reference to other jurisdictions in China. She noted the aim of such declarations was to indicate an individual’s level of risk based on his or her state of health, known contact with Covid-19 patients and travel history.

Mutual recognition of Macau’s declaration system and that of the neighbouring mainland Chinese city of Zhuhai in Guangdong has been in place since May 10. The system has three colour codes to indicate an individual’s level of health risk. A green colour-code means the person is not linked to any known Covid-19 cases; a red colour-code indicates infection, suspected infection or that the person has been in close contact with a confirmed case. A yellow colour-code signifies that the person has a fever or has symptoms of some form of respiratory illness.

Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau were looking to frame some form of quarantine-free travel arrangement within this month, Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor told a Hong Kong-based news outlet a week ago.

There is still no date fixed for when border restrictions affecting travel between Guangdong province and the two special administrative regions, might ease, Ms Chan told the South China Morning Post. But she noted that such relaxation of border controls was likely start with only a “small number” of people being able to travel quarantine-free out of Hong Kong. Such people were expected to include those who would normally commute regularly across those borders, such as professionals, business owners, students and truck drivers.