Hong Kong May Make More Eateries Use Covid Contact Tracing App
Hong Kong May Make More Eateries Use Covid Contact Tracing App
(Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong will likely make more restaurants require check-in via its Covid-19 contact tracing app in a push to accelerate reopening the city’s border with mainland China, a pro-government lawmaker said.
The use of the LeaveHomeSafe app is likely to be required as soon as mid-November at restaurants currently seating four people per table and remaining open until 10 p.m., Michael Tien, a Hong Kong deputy of China’s National People’s Congress, told Bloomberg in an interview.
Scanning the app to record locations is currently optional for customers at those eateries, who can choose to manually fill in a contact form instead. No contact tracing measures are required for establishments seating two people per table and stopping dine-in services by 6 p.m.
But LeaveHomeSafe is mandatory at restaurants wishing to seat six people or more per table, and open until midnight or later. Officials have also required citizens to scan the app when entering government buildings or municipal markets.
Extending the use of the app will address Beijing’s concern that it isn’t used widely enough, an issue that has impeded the progress of negotiations in resuming quarantine-free travel with the mainland, Tien said.
Quarantine-free travel to China could happen as soon as the end of the year or in the first quarter of 2022 on a limited scale, he has said, and visits may at first be confined to neighboring Guangdong province with a daily quota of a few hundred people.
Hong Kong has attached the highest importance to reopening the mainland border, with China doubling down on its strict Covid Zero policy of containment even as other stalwarts like Singapore and Australia pivot to living with the virus as endemic.
Officials in Hong Kong have stepped up anti-pandemic measures -- including shelving quarantine exemptions -- in a bid to ease Beijing’s concerns, even though local flareups are rare in the semi-autonomous city. The moves have fueled concerns among the local communities and business that Hong Kong could be left behind at a time when other major financial hubs including London and Singapore are reopening.
©2021 Bloomberg L.P.