A health expert said on Wednesday that the city’s vaccine pass arrangement should stay for the rest of this year and be reviewed only after the winter outbreaks.
HKU microbiologist Ho Pak-leung’s comments came as Hong Kong yesterday recorded 250 new infections - 34 imported and 216 locally transmitted - with no deaths.
Speaking on a radio program this morning, he said the city has maintained a daily Covid caseload of around 200 after the relaxation of the social distancing measures, with no visible rebound in infections.
He also said even the toughest inbound control measures could not completely block out Covid cases from entering communities.
Over 180 countries or regions around the globe have eased their inbound control measures, but the number of serious cases stemming from the infections did not rise significantly even though the figure of positive cases grow, he added.
Ho believed shortening the 7-day hotel quarantine for the city’s foreign arrivals to three days would not affect the city’s Covid situation. The health expert also sees no problem in allowing Hong Kong residents to undergo home quarantine instead of at the quarantine hotels.
Meanwhile, he noted that it was expected that the McDonald's cluster of the highly contagious Omicron BA.2.12.1 subvariant in Cityplaza would grow and is of less concern as the Omicron variant is in play, rather than a new mutant variant of the virus.
Speaking on a radio program this morning, he said the city has maintained a daily Covid caseload of around 200 after the relaxation of the social distancing measures, with no visible rebound in infections.
He also said even the toughest inbound control measures could not completely block out Covid cases from entering communities.
Over 180 countries or regions around the globe have eased their inbound control measures, but the number of serious cases stemming from the infections did not rise significantly even though the figure of positive cases grow, he added.
Ho believed shortening the 7-day hotel quarantine for the city’s foreign arrivals to three days would not affect the city’s Covid situation. The health expert also sees no problem in allowing Hong Kong residents to undergo home quarantine instead of at the quarantine hotels.
Meanwhile, he noted that it was expected that the McDonald's cluster of the highly contagious Omicron BA.2.12.1 subvariant in Cityplaza would grow and is of less concern as the Omicron variant is in play, rather than a new mutant variant of the virus.