HONG KONG: Health authorities will tighten rules on issuing travellers provisional vaccine passes to enter most premises in a bid to plug any loopholes in Hong Kong's policies to combat the coronavirus, the Post has learned.
"The authorities are now considering raising the threshold for getting a temporary vaccine pass given the change of circumstances," a government source on Tuesday said.
Authorities were urged to update their policy after a woman from mainland China recently caused a stir on social media when she posted she could "travel everywhere" in Hong Kong, despite being unvaccinated against Covid-19.
Overseas arrivals, who are permitted to enter the city provided they have received two shots, must apply for a temporary vaccine pass to access all venues covered under the government scheme.
"Given three-dose vaccination is now widely available in many places, and most travellers are also fully vaccinated, should the government increase the number of doses required and shorten the six-month grace period? These are the areas being reviewed," the insider said.
Under Hong Kong's vaccine pass, all eligible residents must be inoculated with three coronavirus jabs to enter various premises such as restaurants, swimming pools, sports grounds, and places of entertainment.
Despite requiring eligible residents aged 12 and above to receive three shots to qualify for the vaccine pass from May, the government knew such practices were not standard across the rest of the world, the source said.
As a result, local authorities opted for a two-jab requirement for inbound travellers, including returning residents, to qualify for a provisional vaccine pass, the insider said.
To qualify for the temporary pass, arrivals were required to declare their non-local vaccination or recovery records at either the city's post offices or the border.
The temporary status expires after six months, and travellers are required to receive their third shot to qualify for a regular pass.
But arrivals from Macau, Taiwan and mainland China are exempt from the requirement and can obtain a provisional pass without getting inoculated.
The government source explained that city authorities had considered all three locations to be low-risk since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, with each previously reporting low case numbers due to their strict anti-epidemic policies.
The small caseloads and stringent curbs in each area had resulted in vaccination requirements not being a condition of travel between the locations, the insider added.
Those taking part in the "Return2HK" and "Come2HK" are also not required to be vaccinated, with the schemes providing limited spaces for city residents as well as mainland travellers and expatriates, respectively, to come to Hong Kong.
Asked if the policy had created a loophole in the city's border control measures, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu on Tuesday said the arrangement had existed for a long time, with no imported cases from the mainland being reported as a result of it.
"Of course, we would monitor the pandemic situation and review according to the actual situation," he added.
A spokesman for the Health Bureau said authorities were considering standardising practices for issuing temporary vaccine passes, with an announcement to be made at a later stage.
