Alfred Sit: HK govt will facilitate registration process esp. for the elderly

Alfred Sit Wing-hang, Secretary for Innovation and Technology, said in a television program today (Aug.30) that the registration process for universal testing had been going very smoothly.

The Hong Kong government has received more than 4,000 calls since last night, mostly from elderly people who do not have mobile phones, asking whether they can receive confirmation messages on their family members' mobile phones. The government will try to facilitate the process upon their requests.

According to Sit, only three residents found that their identity card numbers and mobile phone numbers had been registered for testing, and the government will investigate whether their friends or relatives registered for them incidentally. Sit stressed that the government will take enforcement action if the above incidents are confirmed to be malicious.

Sit said that as early as May, when the epidemic was relatively stable, HK was ready to launch the health code, but the third wave of the outbreak delayed the plan. Hence, the HK health code was ready and will be launched when the epidemic is stabilized. There will be a certain quota for customs clearance at first. Citizens need to apply for the quota through the online booking system, and then go to a testing center approved by the Department of Health for virus testing. If the test result is negative, the person can then apply for the "Hong Kong Health Code." Before crossing the border, they can transform the "Hong Kong Health Code" into "Guangdong-Hong Kong Health Code" or "Macao Health Code" to obviate the need for compulsory quarantine, which makes cross-border travel much more convenient.