Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam said today that the city’s government has decided to suspend the plan to conduct a mass mandatory testing for Covid-19 within March, Xinhua reported.

Lam told a press conference that the decision was made after considering the opinions of mainland and local experts who have reached a consensus that mass mandatory testing should be carried out at the beginning or the end of the outbreak.

Although the current epidemic situation has eased in Hong Kong, the number of confirmed cases is still high and experts agreed that it is not appropriate to invest limited resources in mass testing at this stage, she added.

Lam also announced that the current flight ban against nine countries and regions including Britain and the United States will be lifted from April 1. The first stage of the new measure will be applicable to Hong Kong residents who have completed vaccination. They must hold a negative nucleic acid test certificate 48 hours before boarding from other places and have a quarantine hotel room booked in advance.

Moreover, Lam said that as the epidemic situation in Hong Kong is still severe, most of the social distancing measures will be extended to April 20 as originally planned.

On the premise that the epidemic situation does not rebound and shows a downward trend, most social distance measures will be lifted in three stages from April 21. In the first stage, some premises will be reopened, including museums and libraries, evening dine-in service till 10pm will be resumed, and the gathering restriction will be relaxed to four people.

With regard to vaccination, Lam said the government aims to have 90% of the population aged 12 or above vaccinated with their second shots by the end of April. – Bernama, March 21, 2022.