Virus Health Code System Won't Be Foolproof: Expert

An infectious disease expert said on Thursday that adopting a health code system with Guangdong and Macau will be an acceptable way to resume quarantine-free travel to and from those places, but warned this will not be guaranteed to prevent all people with Covid-19 from getting through.

Dr Leung Chi-chiu, who chairs the Hong Kong Medical Association's advisory committee on communicable diseases, said that such a system is suitable for these relatively low-risk areas.

But Leung warned that a health code can't prevent all people with coronavirus from crossing the borders.

"The novel coronavirus has a very long incubation period, and also the infection risk is especially high in the first seven days," he said.

"The screening announced using nucleic acid may not be able to pick up the infection and it cannot exclude transmission risk rising after the test, and it can only be used for allowing quarantine free travel between no-risk areas, but not from epidemic zones."

Reports have suggested that tests for the health code will be provided by around eight hospitals or labs and will cost up to HK$1,500, and Leung said at the start that it will mainly be business travelers who can afford to pay for the test.

But he told RTHK's Violet Wong: "I think we need completely free barrier-free travel between low-risk areas and that will be useful to promote the recovery of the economy in this region.”

Leung's comments come after tourism representatives said they are hoping a "travel bubble" with Macau and Guangdong will be established soon, to allow healthy people to travel without undergoing mandatory quarantine.

Macau and Zhuhai are already allowing people to pass from one side of the border to the other using a QR code system that shows a person's level of risk for the coronavirus based on the people they've been in contact with and their travel history.