![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() But the city may not see the health benefits of zero COVID-Hong Kong recorded 3,807 cases on Monday, nearly five times the mainland’s total-or the practical benefits of reopening its economy if it pursues both goals at the same time. Hong Kong appears to be pursuing mainland China’s zero-COVID policy with the new health code system while also slowly trying to reopen its economy. “It is unlikely to benefit the broader business and tourist travel which will need a full lifting of quarantine controls,” David Graham, executive director of the British Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, said in a statement. Still, the foreign business community does not appear convinced that the city’s new rules will boost business or leisure travel. The quarantine rules have gradually relaxed since January when incoming travelers needed to serve 21-day mandatory hotel quarantines. The travel restrictions have devastated the city’s economy and have consistently drawn the ire of the city’s business community whose leaders complain that it’s nearly impossible to host meetings or clients in the onetime business hub. Hong Kong is one of the last places on earth to enforce hotel quarantines for incoming travelers. “I assure you that you can use the app safely,” he said. In the Monday press conference, Sun tried to reassure the public that Hong Kong authorities would not abuse their power and would responsibly handle people’s data. China’s central government later punished five officials for abusing the system. Authorities turned the codes of more than 1,300 protesters red, making it nearly impossible for the depositors to ride public transit or move about the city. In late May, thousands of bank depositors in China’s central Henan province protested at local banks that refused to pay them back their deposits. The pervasive use of the app in mainland China has made the app ripe for abuse. People may be tagged with a yellow or red code if they are in the same neighborhood as a confirmed or suspected case, which would bar them from entering restaurants, riding public transportation, or going into public places until they took one or multiple PCR tests. The app contains their COVID health records, and people must scan QR codes with the app to enter public places. Virtually every Chinese citizen has to upload a health code app to their smartphones. The mainland’s color-coded smartphone tracking system has become one of the government’s main tools for imposing its COVID-zero policy that does not tolerate any spread of the virus. Hong Kongers just need to look across the border to mainland China to see what such usage might look like. “The latest updates will help us ensure we can precisely contain the risks associated with certain groups of people,” Sun Dong, Hong Kong’s secretary for innovation, technology, and industry, said in a press conference on Monday.īut some Hong Kong residents have long worried that the government would use such an app to step up digital surveillance and track people’s day-to-day movements. In some cases, patients are sent to government-run quarantine centers until they test negative. ![]() The amber code bars users from entering bars and restaurants but allows them to go to some places like offices.Īnyone in Hong Kong who tests positive for COVID will receive a red code and will be prohibited from nearly all places outside their homes. After the hotel quarantine, travelers enter a four-day period of medical surveillance, in which their LeaveHomeSafe code will be amber. The new app will use a red, amber, and blue code-similar to mainland China’s red, yellow, green system-that shows the relative COVID risk that people pose in spreading the virus, with blue signaling the lowest risk.Īll inbound travelers to Hong Kong must serve a three-day hotel quarantine while taking multiple PCR tests and daily rapid antigen tests. Hong Kong’s new app is an update to its existing mobile phone vaccine pass called LeaveHomeSafe, which is already widely used in Hong Kong because people need it to dine at restaurants, enter office buildings, and go to the movies. ![]()
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