Four camps to provide COVID-19 tests at HK$240

Hong Kong residents will have to pay only HK$240 (US$31) for a COVID-19 test that would be required to enter the Chinese mainland once normal cross-boundary travel resumes.

The price - only a fraction of the HK$1,500 to HK$2,000 charged for such a test at local private hospitals - was announced by Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor on Tuesday just before she left for Beijing with a high-level delegation for talks with mainland officials on ways of reviving the special administrative region's economy battered by the pandemic.

She said normalizing cross-boundary travel, which has been severely curtailed since February following the outbreak, will be among the key topics for discussion with the mainland authorities. A major proposal is to secure the lifting of the mandatory 14-day quarantine requirement for Hong Kong residents entering the mainland.

"At present, resuming normal travel between Hong Kong and the mainland is of chief concern for Hong Kong residents. Whether it's for business, medical care, schooling or visiting relatives, it's of prime importance," said Lam.

To achieve this, it would depend on how soon Hong Kong could bring the pandemic under control, she stressed, although it would be challenging for the city to bring local infection cases down to zero for 14 consecutive days.

Besides Beijing, Lam's delegation, which includes Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Christopher Hui Ching-yu, Secretary for Transport Frank Chan Fan and Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee, will visit Guangzhou and Shenzhen during the four-day trip to review closer economic cooperation in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Chan Siu-chee will brief the central authorities on Hong Kong's efforts to combat the pandemic in the hope it could win the mainland's approval for an easing in cross-boundary travel restrictions.

Lam also revealed that Hong Kong's much anticipated health code system is likely to be launched any time. From mid-November, four long-term COVID-19 testing centers will be set up in Quarry Bay, Yau Ma Tei, Sha Tin and Yuen Long to provide affordable testing services.

A contact-tracing cellphone app "Leave Home Safe" that can assess a person's coronavirus infection risk will also be rolled out soon. Users can use it to scan QR codes before entering public venues like markets and sports centers, and they would be alerted if COVID-19 patients had visited these places.

Ankur Bordia, director of Valentine Jewels (HK), said it would be good for her business once the 14-day quarantine requirement is lifted.

The jeweler, who has been living in Hong Kong for 13 years, said the requirement has created a "very big problem" for her company. You just can't do business when you've to be quarantined for 28 days going to the mainland and coming back to Hong Kong, she said. "You can't visit factories and can't follow up on orders."