Health Secretary Lo Chung-mau on Saturday said the government would consult the public on a New Zealand-style lifetime ban on younger generations buying tobacco products, while expressing hope that an increase in taxes would halt a smoking rebound when people are allowed to take their masks off.

Speaking on a radio programme, Lo Chung-mau said there were early signs that the 60-cent per cigarette hike was working, with the daily number of callers to the quit-smoking hotline rising from 20 to more than 130 in the couple of days after it was announced in Wednesday's budget.

"This is a very encouraging result,” he said. “We expect this to continue for a while. I agree that we have to continue with the momentum. With the removal of the mask [mandate], we will anticipate that there may be a possibility of a rise in smoking”.

Officials have yet to set a date for the end of the three-year-old Covid mask mandate, but have indicated that mandatory masking will likely end soon, at least outdoors.

Lo also said more measures would follow towards the goal of a "smoke-free" Hong Kong, and a public consultation will be rolled out in the first half of the year.

The minister said the measures would include "making smoking less attractive, less convenient, by increasing the non-smoking area, and also reducing the attractiveness of the packages".

He said the government was also considering whether to legislate to bar people born after a certain year from ever buying tobacco products. New Zealand last year became the first country to implement such a ban, with people born after 2008 barred from buying tobacco for life.