The innovation and technology chief said on Friday that the city’s health code system is in the final stages of development, with technicians running tests on it before making it available for citizens to download.

Sit said details will be announced next week so the “public can download it as soon as possible, learn how to use it and operate smoothly when the borders are officially opened.”

He stressed the real-name registration for the health code is crucial to ensure people crossing the borders are those not in the high-risk groups of getting infected.

Meanwhile, Chief Secretary John Lee Ka-chiu said at a briefing on Thursday evening that the administration’s current idea is to use the Hong Kong Health Code along with the LeaveHomeSafe app.

The LeaveHomeSafe app lets users enter public venues by scanning a quick response code that’s pegged to their mobile phone, not their name, and doesn’t share data with the government.

A mandatory health code has dictated where citizens can go since the pandemic hit, using a traffic light system in mainland China. It knows a user’s name, identification number, close contacts, and shares data with local authorities.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor has prioritized restarting quarantine-free travel to China over the rest of the world. That’s meant the city has to match Beijing’s stringent requirements as it pursues a Covid Zero policy of trying to eliminate the virus from its borders.

With the addition of the app Hong Kong has fulfilled the basic conditions to reopen the border, Lee said Thursday, after returning from the southern city of Shenzhen to meet with Chinese officials. He added that the city will ramp up testing of high-risk groups ahead of the reopening and submit reports to the mainland.