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Coronavirus pandemic
Hong KongSociety

Coronavirus: Hong Kong government could fully resume services next week

  • All departments told to come up with plans to bring civil servants back to the office, source says
  • Administration also discussing restrictions on travellers going across the border with mainland Chinese counterparts, another insider says

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Civil servants heading to work at Tamar in Admiralty early last month. Photo: Sam Tsang
Ng Kang-chung,Gary CheungandKaren Zhang
All Hong Kong government departments will have to submit plans on fully resuming services next week, the Post has learned, after the city also reported zero new Covid-19 infections for a second straight day.
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The prospect of most of the city’s 180,000 civil servants heading back to office after more than a month working from home comes as the government is in discussions with its mainland Chinese counterparts on easing cross-border travel restrictions.

Separate sources confirmed the back-to-work planning and border-control talks, and revealed that the Executive Council on Tuesday would discuss whether to extend the 14-day quarantine rule for arrivals from mainland China set to expire on May 7.

On Monday, the city had no new coronavirus cases to report for the fourth time in eight days. The total number of infections remained at 1,037, with four related deaths.
Travellers leave Hong Kong for mainland China through the Shenzhen Bay Port. Photo: Felix Wong
Travellers leave Hong Kong for mainland China through the Shenzhen Bay Port. Photo: Felix Wong
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The civil service asked staff who were not providing essential or urgent services to work from home from January 29 after the first infections emerged in Hong Kong. But following initial signs the disease was retreating, some employees returned to the office early last month, only to be told again to work from home from March 23.

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