Too Many Infections To Launch Health Code: Govt

The Secretary for Innovation and Technology, Alfred Sit, said on Sunday that the number of new coronavirus cases in the city needs to drop even further before Hong Kong can launch a digital certificate system to facilitate cross-border travel.

Residents of Guangdong province and Macau are using a similar health code system to prove they have tested negative for the coronavirus so that they can be exempted from quarantine rules when they travel between the two places.

Sit said although the daily number of Covid-19 cases in Hong Kong has been dropping recently, the figures are still not low enough.

“Although our coronavirus situation is improving, we still had 18 cases yesterday. But our neighbouring places are reporting zero cases. So we have to wait till our local infection figures drop to single-digits or zero,” he said.

Sit said that even if people are found to be negative for Covid-19 via the citywide testing scheme to be introduced this week, they will not be able to use the result to apply for a health code as the timing isn't right.

He said the government will closely monitor the coronavirus situation.

“As soon as the situation stabilises, we’ll study with the Guangdong and Macau governments how we can launch the Hong Kong health code as early as possible, so economic activities between the three places can resume,” he said.