As the Chinese mainland adjusts its COVID policy and scraps many of its previous restrictive measures, calls from residents of both sides for more convenient travel between Hong Kong and the mainland have been growing. The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region's Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said on Thursday that it is possible that Hong Kong and the mainland will realize quarantine-free travel next year.
Lee expressed the hope on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo that before realizing quarantine-free travel, higher quotas for entries into neighboring Shenzhen in South China's Guangdong Province can be given for Hong Kong, and the "point-to-point" mode of transport for cross-border trucks as well as other arrangements should be adjusted to gradually restore normal exchanges between two sides.
Last week, the quota for entry into Shenzhen from Hong Kong was raised by 1,000, and now 500 more have been added, so that 2,500 people are now allowed to pass every day, Lee noted.
Apart from entries via Shenzhen's "health station," the Shenzhen Municipal Government earlier set up an additional humanitarian care quota for people urgently needing to return to the mainland, including eight categories of those who need special care such as elderly people aged 70 or above, children aged 14 or below without guardians in Hong Kong, pregnant women and their accompanying persons.
