Transcript of remarks by S for Health at media session
******************************************************
Reporter: In terms of COVID situation, would you consider an expert's suggestion of scrapping quarantine for infected people if the daily number falls below or at around 15 000? With the forthcoming border reopening with the Mainland, how would the Government align the vaccination requirements for Mainland and international travellers?
Secretary for Health: For every adjustment that we made to the anti-epidemic measures, we will have to monitor the overall situation. As we can see, the number of infection and hospital admission are on the rise. We have just made major adjustments to the anti-epidemic measures. One of which is to cancel the quarantine order and stop classifying people as close contacts. We will have to monitor the situation before we make further adjustments to the isolation order. Regarding the vaccination requirements for inbound passengers, our principle is to align international travellers requirements with the inbound travellers coming from the Mainland. We will be monitoring the situation and consider how we can adjust the vaccination requirements for these inbound passengers. We agree that in the past, there is a discrepancy in this requirement for inbound travellers coming from overseas as compared to the Mainland. We will be adjusting this and our principle is to align this to make sure that the requirements for both sides are the same.
Reporter: Does that means requiring vaccination……
Secretary for Health: We will announce when we decide on this policy but the principle is to align the two.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Saturday, December 31, 2022
Issued at HKT 11:21
Issued at HKT 11:21
NNNN