Chief Secretary Eric Chan says the Hong Kong government is ready to scrap the PCR testing requirement for cross-border travellers as daily Covid infections drop, but he can't give any timetable since it has to get the nod from the central authorities.

In an interview with the Hong Kong Economic Times, Chan said the testing requirement was imposed when quarantine-free travel with the mainland was resumed to prevent cross-infections.

“We are afraid that mainlanders would infect people in Hong Kong. By the same token, mainland people are afraid we’d infect them,” he said.

But the minister said when the number of travellers grows over time, the capacity of PCR testing facilities would come under pressure, and authorities are hoping to switch to rapid antigen tests and then ultimately scrap all Covid tests.

“We hope this could be achieved as early as possible. But we can’t promise whether it will be implemented before or after the Lunar New Year,” he said, adding that once the government gets the green light from Beijing, it can make the change whenever it wants.

Chan said officials from both sides are in talks every day and this is how they decided to exempt children aged three or below from taking a PCR test to enter the mainland from Thursday.

He said in the past two weeks, more than a million mainland people have applied for a visa to come to Hong Kong, adding that their visits will hopefully boost the city’s economy.

“After all, we have been trapped for three years. Hong Kong is a popular destination among mainlanders because it is near. Even if they have only two days off, they can pay us a visit. Hong Kong is also a food paradise, it’s very attractive,” said Chan.