Society

More than 20 students queue up at the residential halls after Hong Kong Baptist University requires the LeaveHomeSafe mobile app, while lifting all other registration requirements and to set foot in the school.   Starting from Oct 8, students and staff need to scan the LeaveHomeSafe QR code before entering the university, according to the school's internal email delivered last Monday.  The new arrangement replaced the identity verification and health declaration that was used since the start of the pandemic. Vaccination requirement is lifted to attend face-to-face lessons, despite special premises including sport facilities and restaurants. The undergraduate housings firstly started the LeaveHomeSafe system last Friday, together with the existing identity verification system. Only blue code holders are permitted to the hall. “Last time I spent around 15 minutes to get in and then waiting for the elevator for an even longer time,” said Yernar Baltabay, a hall resident. “ People are forced to huddle together.”  The undergraduate halls offer 1,770 residences for full-time students. Residents have to record their entrance to the hall by scanning the LeaveHomeSafe QR code, and scan the vaccine pass by a mobile phone app at an appropriate distance and angle. The mobile phone cannot detect vaccine passes sometimes, according to Freya Chan, a hall resident. “Usually you will spend a long time getting the machine to read your QR code. If you move slowly, the queue will start behind you. That is extremely embarrassing,” she said. If the scanning does not work, students need to show their vaccine records to security guards in the hall for confirmation. “We are willing to better serve students using this system, but we now spend more time and energy checking the Vaccine Pass in person, because the machine is not working well,” said the security guard Chan Chung, who …

From Friday, children aged 5-11 years need to produce a vaccine pass in order to enter public premises such as restaurants, libraries and amusement parks. To meet the requirement, kids in the age range must have received at least one vaccine dose within the past three months, and those who received their first dose earlier must get a second jab. The second phase will begin on Nov. 30, when all children in this age group should have two injections. Parents can add their children’s vaccination records to their own “Leave Home Safe” mobile app. A new feature on the risk-exposure app allows users to upload additional vaccine passes for their companions, such as children and the elderly. “The adding procedure is a bit complicated,” said Sin Ka-yan, mother of a 9-year-old boy, “I cannot find the uploading access.” Some children were denied access to public places on Friday because they could not provide proof of vaccination. Joey Cheung, a staff member of a children's amusement arcade, said in some cases parents forgot to apply for their children’s vaccine passes. “I'm sorry, but we can’t let them in,” she said. Among some 400,000 children aged five to 11, only about 50,000 have not received a single dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, Secretary for the Civil Service, Ingrid Yeung Ho Poi-yan said last Thursday. However, Yeung said the change in vaccine pass requirements should not result in many unvaccinated children being barred from certain venues because some of them may have been previously infected and have to wait to get the vaccine. The Hong Kong Committee on Children's Rights said on Facebook that the vaccine pass policy will prevent some children from participating in activities in public places that are critical to their development. “We think that there can be some compromises, …

Hong Kong announced on Friday it will end the hotel quarantine for all arrivals from next Monday, a long awaited move after an over two-year period of tough pandemic control amid Covid-19. “We will give Hong Kong the greatest space to connect with the world, give society the greatest economic impetus, reduce inconvenience for those who come to Hong Kong and not retrace our steps,” Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said at a press briefing on Friday. The new policy changes the quarantine period from “3+4” to “0+3”. The mandatory hotel isolation scheme is cancelled. Starting next Monday, inbound travellers will only need to undergo three-day medical surveillance in their home place or hotel. The pre-departure PCR test requirement will also be replaced by a rapid antigen test within 24 hours of departure. "I am very happy that the government has eventually changed the policy, and life is finally back to normal," said Xu Jilin, 22, a student from mainland China at the University of Hong Kong. He has already booked a flight to Thailand for the upcoming winter break after seeing the government's moves in lifting travel restrictions. Yoyo Li, 35, is planning for her next trip abroad right after the announcement was released. She just came back from a vacation in Japan early this month. “I couldn't resist travelling when the 3+4 policy was announced last month," she said. "Now that there is no longer a need for mandatory quarantine, I'm going to compensate for my lost vacation." Oversea travellers used to face a 21-day hotel quarantine - among the world’s longest- after they arrived in Hong Kong. The policy was in place for more than a year until this February. The quarantine period was once shortened to “3+4” days on August 12, for which visitors were required …