[Global Times Special Correspondent in Hong Kong, Ye Lan] The new crown pneumonia epidemic has lasted for more than a year. All walks of life in Hong Kong demand that customs clearance with the mainland be resumed as soon as possible. However, returning to Hong Kong from mainland provinces other than Guangdong Province still requires mandatory quarantine for 14 days. This caused the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. Vice Chairman and former Chief Executive Liang Zhenying questioned.
According to a report by Hong Kong's "Sing Tao Daily" on the 28th, Liang Zhenying posted on social networking sites that he had just returned to Hong Kong from a meeting in Beijing and all passengers on the flight, including Hong Kong residents, must be quarantined.
There was a Beijing couple on the same plane. Their son went to school in Hong Kong and had not seen each other for more than a year.
The couple asked him, “Why don’t it be necessary for Hong Kong people to return to Hong Kong from Guangdong, and all other people who go to Hong Kong from any other part of the country must be quarantined? Doesn’t Hong Kong know that Beijing is no longer infected?” Liang Zhenying wrote, “I don’t have any. Words".
It is understood that the "Easy Return to Hong Kong" program, which exempts Hong Kong residents from returning to Hong Kong from Guangdong Province or Macau, was implemented on November 23 last year. As of January this year, 32,000 people have returned to Hong Kong through the program, an average of about 560 people per day.
The Federation of Trade Unions member Lu Songxiong also said that he was baffled by the measure.
He said that the risk of the epidemic in the Mainland is close to zero, and he does not understand why the exemption arrangement for "Easy Return to Hong Kong" is limited to Guangdong Province. It is very inconvenient for Mainlanders to go shopping or doing business in Hong Kong. It is time for the government to review the policy.
The Liberal Party leader Zhong Guobin agreed with Liang Zhenying's doubts, saying that the exemptions of "Easy Return to Hong Kong" are only for Hong Kong residents in Guangdong Province. In the second stage, it can be extended to Hong Kong residents in other provinces, and then to mainland residents in Guangdong Province and all domestic people; As long as they hold a valid test certificate or receive vaccination, there is no reason why they cannot be exempted from isolation.
Zhong Guobin said that the exemption objects are only limited to Hong Kong residents and the number of people is limited. “They just go home and will not have a great impact on the economy.” If the exemption is further extended to mainlanders, it can attract more tourists to Hong Kong for consumption, which will have a significant impact on the hotel industry and the catering industry. help.
"Oriental Daily" said on the 28th that after the normal customs clearance between the mainland and Macao resumed, the Macau Tourism Administration announced on the 26th that the number of visitors to Macao has rebounded. In the past week, there were nearly 190,000 visitors, with an average of 27,120 daily visitors, more than double that of the Spring Festival. , An increase of 77.8% from the average daily visits in February.
In contrast to Hong Kong, the "Hong Kong version of the health code" for the interoperability of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao has been suspended, and the aviation "tourism bubble" program established with Singapore has been launched indefinitely, resulting in a considerable depression in the tourism industry.
According to the Hong Kong Immigration Department, only 11,173 people entered the country during the week from March 20 to 26, of which only 8% of mainland tourists and other tourists accounted for 970. "Compared with the number of tourists in Macau, it is a world of difference."
The epidemic in Hong Kong has eased. The Center for Health Protection of the Department of Health announced that as of 0:00 on the 28th, a new imported case has been added, which is the lowest number of confirmed diagnoses in 5 months, and it is also a local zero confirmed case for two consecutive days. However, there is news that there has been a preliminary confirmed case of unknown origin, and the patient is a Baptist University student. Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor stated in the monthly anti-epidemic report on the 27th that 430,000 citizens received the first shot in the first month of the vaccination plan. It is believed that it will take a long time to achieve the goal of herd immunity. In order to encourage more citizens to be vaccinated, the Hong Kong government is studying whether social distancing can be further adjusted if a certain number of citizens are vaccinated, and it is also discussing with other regions to provide mutual travel convenience for passengers who have been vaccinated.