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Saturday, Feb 22, 2025
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‘Hong Kong Health Code’ may record travel history, says health chief
Hong Kong’s health chief said the city’s version of the health code may record users’ travel history, making references to the Macau Health Code.
Speaking on a radio program on Wednesday, health secretary Sophia Chan Siu-chee said authorities, when developing the health code, may enable it to record users’ travel history, vaccination record, and Covid test results.
She stressed that the mainland authorities have been focusing on risk management, not wanting to take any risk with the reopening of borders.
When asked if the SAR government would revamp the LeaveHomeSafe app to include the health code system, Chan said the Innovation and Technology Bureau will be looking into the matter.
Meanwhile, the health chief said the vaccine donation to Covax is because the city has more supplies than it needs, with 15 million shots of Sinovac and BioNTech available.
The government yesterday announced it would donate 7.5 million doses of AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines it procured to Covax, the global vaccine-sharing program.
"It is important for those places where we have sufficient vaccines, and if we have more than sufficient, then it would be most appropriate for us to donate through [the World Health Organisation's] Covax facility, to those needy countries," she said.
She said the recipients would be 92 economies with lower income, where only around 20 percent of the population have taken the first dose of Covid-19 jabs.
However, Chan said confidentiality agreements prevented her from disclosing the price of the vaccines, but stressed the government would have to spend an extra few million in packaging and transportation of the batch of vaccines.
She stressed that the mainland authorities have been focusing on risk management, not wanting to take any risk with the reopening of borders.
When asked if the SAR government would revamp the LeaveHomeSafe app to include the health code system, Chan said the Innovation and Technology Bureau will be looking into the matter.
Meanwhile, the health chief said the vaccine donation to Covax is because the city has more supplies than it needs, with 15 million shots of Sinovac and BioNTech available.
The government yesterday announced it would donate 7.5 million doses of AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines it procured to Covax, the global vaccine-sharing program.
"It is important for those places where we have sufficient vaccines, and if we have more than sufficient, then it would be most appropriate for us to donate through [the World Health Organisation's] Covax facility, to those needy countries," she said.
She said the recipients would be 92 economies with lower income, where only around 20 percent of the population have taken the first dose of Covid-19 jabs.
However, Chan said confidentiality agreements prevented her from disclosing the price of the vaccines, but stressed the government would have to spend an extra few million in packaging and transportation of the batch of vaccines.
