LeaveHomeSafe, Testing Orders Are No Use Now: Expert

Compulsory testing orders and the LeaveHomeSafe app are no longer effective anti-epidemic measures, government pandemic adviser David Hui said on Wednesday.

The Chinese University professor added that the government should consider scrapping the three-day amber health code for incoming travellers if there is no rebound in Covid infections in the coming days.

“The government should consider implementing the zero-plus-zero arrangement as soon as possible, preferably before November. There will be many large-scale conferences in November," Hui said.

He said Hong Kong must quickly catch up with the many places that have opened up again to the outside world, or people's livelihoods will be affected.

“The number of confirmed cases [in Hong Kong] in recent days is slowly falling. The number of deaths is small. The number of patients receiving intensive treatment is also very small... and the vaccination rate is getting higher and higher. There absolutely are conditions for [the government] to relax social distancing measures,” he said.

Hui said while the LeaveHomeSafe app was effective in tracking Covid infections in the early stages of the pandemic, it should now be dropped since it is no longer used for this purpose.

He also questioned the effectiveness of compulsory testing notices for residential buildings, saying Covid will inevitably be found in sewage samples from places where infected people are undergoing home quarantine.