Hong Kong must ensure it can handle possible spike in Covid cases when it fully reopens border with mainland, health experts say

Hong Kong must ensure it can handle a possible spike in Covid-19 cases when it fully reopens its border with mainland China, health experts have warned, while the city’s chief executive has pledged that travel will return in a safe and gradual manner.

Medical experts on Monday called on authorities to secure enough supply of fever medication and Covid-19 jabs. China’s National Health Commission announced that the mainland would reopen its borders and abandon quarantine measures on January 8 as it downgraded its treatment of Covid-19.

Two days after Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said the first stage of the step-by-step reopening would begin as early as mid-January, he pledged in an opinion piece to strike the right balance between easing travel curbs along the border and reviving the local economy, which had struggled to overcome the impact of almost three years of anti-epidemic restrictions.

“We will implement the border reopening arrangements gradually in order, safely and properly, while taking into account the need to manage changes and risks arising from the pandemic on both sides to enhance the proposal,” he wrote in a piece for pro-Beijing newspaper Ta Kung Pao.

On Monday night, Hong Kong customs posted photos on Facebook, showing officers taking part in a drill at the departures clearance of the West Kowloon high-speed railway. “Various control points are ready for the full reopening,” it said.

As officials hammered out details behind closed doors on increasing an existing quota for cross-border travel, pro-Beijing heavyweight Tam Yiu-chung called for special attention based on compassionate grounds for those who needed to make visits.

Tam proposed the authorities raise the “humanitarian quota”, currently granted to those with an immediate family member who had died or anyone required to attend court hearings and important exams.