No Firm Date Yet On When Eased Curbs Will Start

Government officials remained vague on Wednesday about when the newly-announced relaxations in restrictions for some travellers entering Hong Kong from the mainland will kick in, with one minister saying he expects details of an application mechanism to be ready by next week.

Health Secretary Sophia Chan unveiled the new relaxations on Tuesday evening and the regulations were gazetted within hours.

The new policy will allow people involved in businesses deemed beneficial to Hong Kong, as well as teachers and students of local schools, to cross the border from the mainland without having to observe a 14-day quarantine.

While this in theory has already taken effect, officials are still scrambling to set the exact parameters of how the exemptions would work, and who they would apply to.

The Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Edward Yau, said he hopes to unveil details of an application mechanism under the new guidelines by next week.

Yau said his bureau is considering requiring local businesspeople to prove that they must go to the mainland to attend to their production lines to be exempted from quarantine.

The secretary said they are also looking at allowing only owners of Hong Kong-registered business and a dedicated ‘authorised person’ to apply for the exemption, and they'll have to undergo medical surveillance when they return to Hong Kong.

Education Secretary Kevin Yeung meanwhile said cross-border students will only be given the quarantine exemption only after classes resume here. There has been no announcement on when this would happen.

Yeung said that his bureau and other stakeholders involved are aiming to have students back in the school before the summer vacation.

Health Secretary Chan also told the media on Wednesday that the details of the implementation date for quarantine exemptions will be announced later.

She said that the new regulations empower the Director of Health to cancel the quarantine order, if the person concerned has proof that he or she has already undergone a 14-day quarantine elsewhere, and has tested negative for the new coronavirus .

Chan, meanwhile, played down fears that the new measures will pave the way for a mass influx from across the border, saying it is wrong to say everyone is exempt from the restrictions.

Calls for coronavirus-related restrictions to be eased have been growing as the number of Covid-19 cases have dwindled in recent days.

The government reported no local cases of the disease for the fourth straight day on Wednesday.

Authorities did report one new infection classified as an 'overseas' case, involving a 32-year-old man who had been confirmed with Covid-19 in the UK, but arrived in Hong Kong on a Cathay flight on Tuesday anyway.

The Centre for Health Protection issued a statement saying he was taken straight from the airport to Eastern Hospital after he arrived – where he tested positive for the new coronavirus.

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