A government advisor on the pandemic, David Hui, said on Saturday that he expects the daily Covid caseload to go up as more new variants emerge in Hong Kong.

But the Chinese University professor stressed that people need not be overly concerned about this, because the SAR has a high vaccination rate and the jabs are effective against new variants.

Speaking to reporters after appearing on a radio programme, Hui said the real-time virus reproductive number currently stands at around 1.27, meaning cases can be expected to rise for the time being.

"If you look at the statistics, the number of severe cases and fatal cases is actually not that high, and quite similar to [that in] Singapore....We actually don't need to worry too much," he said.

Hui added that quite a number of people in Hong Kong have hybrid immunity because of recent infections.

The professor of respiratory medicine said he believes the public gathering cap should certainly be relaxed from groups of four to twelve – as is being considered by the government – because tables of 12 are already allowed at restaurants.

However, he said the government's vaccine pass and PCR tests for inbound travellers should be kept in place.

"If you don't perform PCR, you can't perform genome sequencing – you can't monitor new variants coming in to Hong Kong," he said, adding that officials want to be cautious about the variants, at least for now.

Hui said that after a period of observation, follow-up PCR tests after arrival could be replaced by rapid antigen tests, and that travellers could be allowed to enter restaurants by showing a negative RAT result.

Currently, as part of the "zero plus three" arrangement, they are given amber codes barring them from entering many venues, including restaurants, for three days.