Secretary for Food & Health Prof Sophia Chan said today the governments of Guangdong and Hong Kong are considering the launch of a pilot scheme to relax the cross-boundary flow of people between the two places within certain limits.

Answering lawmakers’ questions in the Legislative Council today, Prof Chan said the COVID-19 outbreak in Guangdong Province has relatively subsided and the move would facilitate people who need to travel between Guangdong and Hong Kong.

She said the pilot scheme being discussed is expected to have restrictions on the number or coverage of people eligible for exemption in the initial phase.

If there is a quota on the number of people, the two governments will consider a suitable mechanism for allocating the quota, such as through an open booking system.

Furthermore, exempted people must not have left Hong Kong or Guangdong in the past 14 days preceding their departure.

She noted that the two governments will mutually recognise the COVID-19 test results conducted by designated testing facilities which meet the standards.

The mutual recognition will be done through the health code of the two places. The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government will develop a Hong Kong Health Code system, which enables the scheme participants’ virus test results in Hong Kong to be uploaded onto the code.

Before leaving Hong Kong, eligible people with negative test results can connect to the electronic platform through a web browser using smartphones or mobile devices, and apply for the Hong Kong Health Code online and download it to their mobile phones or devices.

To facilitate the mutual recognition of test results by Guangdong and Hong Kong boundary control officers, scheme participants can, of their own accord, choose to exchange the Hong Kong Health Code for use on Guangdong's Yuekang Code system for health declaration purposes when they enter the province.