The arrangement requires family members to complete two doses of Covid-19 vaccinations at least 14 days before the visit to minimize the risk of infection to patients and hospital staff. It was put in place for a number of acute and specialist hospitals last week, and will be extended to cover eight remaining eight acute hospitals, a spokesman said.

The eight hospitals are Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital, Queen Mary Hospital, United Christian Hospital, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Kwong Wah Hospital, Princess Margaret Hospital, Prince of Wales Hospital and Tuen Mun Hospital.

With consideration given to the usually shorter length of stay of acute hospital patients, the special visiting arrangement is only applicable to patients admitted for more than one week.

Ward staff will schedule the visits and begin calling the patients' family members in the next few days.

Visitors can fill in a health declaration form through the QR Code on the HA website or the mobile application "HA Go" within 24 hours of the visit and present the QR code issued by the system to ward staff.

One or two visits will be arranged for a family member in a designated time slot each week, in keeping with the operation of individual wards.

The new arrangement does not apply to intensive care wards, infectious or isolation wards and psychiatric wards.