The Hong Kong government has announced it will open its new “Hong Kong Health Code” system for registration from this Friday 10 December in a major step towards a reopening of borders with mainland China and Macau.
Although an exact date for the opening of borders is yet to be announced the “Hong Kong Health Code” system is specifically designed to allow quarantine-free travel between Hong Kong, Guangdong Province and Macau by aligning with their respective health code tracking systems. The lack of a compatible app had been seen as one of the major barriers to resuming cross-border travel between the three jurisdictions.
Like many such systems around the world, it will utilize a traffic system with only those showing a “green” health code allowed to travel across the border. It is anticipated that quarantine-free travel could resume between Hong Kong, Guangdong Province and Macau although there will likely be an initial daily quota put in place.
Inside Asian Gaming broke the news in June that Macau authorities had been planning to implement a special “blue health code” system for visitors from Hong Kong as part of a plan to reopen borders between the two Special Administrative Regions.
The Macao SAR Government subsequently confirmed that 51 hotels had already agreed to welcome “blue code” guests in around 2,700 designated hotel rooms, however the plan was scrapped before it began following an outbreak of COVID-19 in Macau in early August.
