Hong Kong Health Code for travel to mainland launches next week along with update for LeaveHomeSafe; city still waiting for quarantine-free travel

The government said the new health code app compatible with Guangdong and Macau to facilitate travel to the mainland will be available at 9am on Dec 10, though it has not yet announced when quarantine-free travel will begin.

“The government is still negotiating with the mainland authorities but said it had come to the final stage after the visit of mainland experts to Hong Kong,” Alfred Sit Wing-hang, the Secretary for Innovation and Technology, said in a press conference today.

The government said it will also provide an update for the LeaveHomeSafe app, which allows users to transfer visiting records to the mainland-compatible Hong Kong Health Code app.

The app will be launched as a “pilot run” before quarantine-free travel starts with no need to rush, said Sit.

Users will need to provide personal information, such as their address and HKID card number, and upload the visiting record from LeaveHomeSafe.

The authorities said 31 days of record will be uploaded, but only the past 21 days of record will be used to generate the code required for border crossings.

Users whose records do not show visits to high-risk places and are not close contacts or household contacts of close contacts of confirmed cases in the past 21 days will get a green code.

For those who have no plan to travel to the mainland, Sit said they do not need to update their LeaveHomeSafe app.

“The government has no plan, and did not see the need for real-name registration for the LeaveHomeSafe App,” Sit added.

Li Yan-yi, 27, said she will not use the Hong Kong Health Code app.

“I have no plan to go to the mainland, and have tons of privacy concerns for the app,” said Li. “When the government launched the app, they said it is all voluntary, but just look at what happens now.”

Wong Chak-shing, 47, a communicator for a construction company, said he would download and try out the Hong Kong Health Code app.

“I will try it out to make sure that I will not encounter any problems when the government says we can go back to the mainland,” said Wong.

Wong said he needs to go to the mainland to inspect the mainland factory's work, which provides materials for the Hong Kong construction sites.

However, Lee Ling, who is in her 40s, said she would not download it although she wants to travel to the mainland.

“I will wait until the government says we can travel to the mainland without quarantine with the code,” said Lee.