Hong Kong
Act Daily News
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Hong Kong on Tuesday introduced it will scrap some remaining restrictions on vacationers and finish contact tracing, after Beijing shifted away from its hardline zero-Covid stance.
The metropolis’s well being secretary is because of formally announce the removing of curbs on worldwide guests and the tip of necessities to scan a authorities well being app to enter public venues, town’s chief John Lee informed a daily news convention on Tuesday.
Lee stated the measures will take impact from Wednesday, when vacationers arriving within the metropolis would not be issued an “amber code” barring them from getting into eating places and bars of their first three days. However, a vaccine requirement to enter venues together with eating places would stay, he added.
“There is no longer a need to scan the Leave Home Safe app, but we will keep the vaccine pass requirement for certain premises,” Lee stated.
International arrivals are nonetheless required to endure a PCR check on arrival in Hong Kong and on the second day of their go to, whereas masks carrying stays mandated in all public venues, together with outdoor. Those testing optimistic should isolate.
The incremental easing of restrictions comes after Hong Kong eliminated necessary quarantine for abroad vacationers in September, following greater than two and a half years of isolation that threatened its standing as a global business hub and plunged the financial system into recession.
Since 2021, folks in Hong Kong have been required to scan a QR code utilizing the federal government’s Leave Home Safe app earlier than getting into locations like eating places, bars and gymnasiums.
Lee stated one of many causes for scrapping the measures was as a result of the an infection danger to the area people posed by imported circumstances was now decrease.
China made a serious pivot from its hardline zero-Covid place following protests throughout the nation in November.
On Monday, authorities in China introduced a deactivation of the “mobile itinerary card” well being monitoring operate. The system, which is separate from the well being code scanning system required in various locations in China, had used cellphone information to trace folks’s journey histories in an effort to establish those that had visited cities with zones designated as “high-risk” by authorities.