Govt Announces Details Of Sunday's Border Reopening

Fifty-thousand Hong Kong residents will be able to cross into the mainland each day via land borders from January 8 without the need for quarantine, with the same number of mainlanders able to travel in the opposite direction.

Providing further details of border reopening plans on Thursday, the government said 35,000 people a day will be able to travel to the mainland via Lok Ma Chau Station, 10,000 through Shenzhen Bay and 5,000 via the Man Kam To checkpoint, after first making bookings online.

Hongkongers returning to the SAR and mainlanders heading north will be exempt from the quota arrangement.

A thousand people per day will be able to leave Hong Kong in private cars via the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge, and the Hong Kong-Macau Ferry Terminal and China Ferry Terminal will reopen.

The high-speed rail line won’t be back in service on January 8, but should be operational a week later, the government said.

Chief Executive John Lee said there will be no quotas for people travelling to and from Hong Kong via plane, ferry or a bus over the bridge and given the current capacity, up to 10,000 people per day will be able to travel in each direction via these services.

Lee added that the authorities on either side of the border will review how the initial re-opening goes before deciding when to increase the quota.

Beijing earlier announced that travellers to the mainland will have to obtain a negative PCR test result up to 48 hours before their border crossing.

At a press conference, Hong Kong Health Secretary Lo Chung-mau explained that people travelling the other way will also need to take a PCR test in advance, but once in the SAR they would only be advised to do rapid tests, for the first five days.

Lee expressed confidence that Hong Kong's healthcare system will be able to cope with an expected increase in Covid cases once quarantine-free travel resumes.

"Even though we have a high number of cases recently, we have already passed the top of this wave," he said.

"The medical service, having been able to cope even when this wave has reached its climax, gives me the confidence that we will be able to continue to run the public health service efficiently and effectively."