CS Eyes End To Tests, Caps For Mainland Travel

Chief Secretary Eric Chan acknowledged on Sunday that forcing travellers to take a PCR test for Covid before going to the mainland is inconvenient, saying officials aimed to drop the rule and abolish a cap on the number of crossings soon.

Since quarantine-free travel to the mainland resumed on January 8, the number of daily land crossins has been capped, while people have had to test negative for Covid, leaving some people complaining of difficulty in finding a place to get a PCR test, especially around the Lunar New Year Holiday.

The minister said Hong Kong was now in a position to move closer to normal travel with the mainland, as infections had not risen since the reopening and experts have advised that another rebound is unlikely. He says SAR officials are liaising with their mainland counterparts on an almost daily basis.

"I understand that people will think that doing the PCR test is not that convenient, and in some areas they even have to queue for quite some time," Chan said as he attended Lunar New Year activities.

"So our target is to cancel this arrangement, and eventually it will be quota-free and there will be no need to do any testing before going to mainland China or from mainland China to Hong Kong. This is out ultimate target."

Most days, only 50,000 people have been allowed to cross the land border in each direction on a daily basis, though 65,000 people a day were allowed to cross in the days leading up to Lunar New Year.

Journeys by train, sea and air are not covered by the cap. A separate limit on travel by high-speed rail has been increased from 5,000 in each direction when services resumed on January 15 to 10,000 per day.

Meanwhile Chan said the government had no timetable to scrap mandatory mask-wearing in public, saying wearing a mask is the most effective way to protect people from Covid.