Covid Border Measures To Stay For Now: Carrie Lam

Chief Executive Carrie Lam on Tuesday said there is unlikely to be any relaxation to Hong Kong's pandemic border control measures before she completes her term at the end of June.

Lam said imported infections now account for a significant share of the caseload since the local Covid rate is low, adding that subvariants of Omicron are also being detected.

At the moment, to travel to Hong Kong people must be vaccinated and arrivals have to quarantine at a designated hotel for at least seven days.

Various chambers of commerce have called for a further relaxation of the rules, but Lam told reporters before she went into the weekly Executive Council meeting that this is unlikely to happen in the coming weeks.

"We have to be extremely careful in implementing the restrictions on border control. I would say that at this point in time, it is very unlikely that during my term there will be more relaxations on the border controls ... in order to keep Hong Kong safe," Lam said.

Asked whether it is time for the government's vaccine pass to be dropped, the CE noted that experts have different opinions on the matter.

She pointed out that close to 90 percent of the population have received two doses of a Covid vaccine, and just over half have had a booster shot, but said the government is of the view that there is room to increase the vaccination rate further.

Therefore the vaccine pass will stay for the time being, Lam said.

The government also announced that students and teachers will have to conduct daily rapid Covid tests before they go to school until at least the end of June.