Thread by @XinqiSu

HK's new health minister Lo Chung-mau announced that from Friday all #Covid patients under home quarantine will have to wear an electronic bracelet in order to prevent them from leaving home.

Lo also said the government "recommends" to partially adopt the mainland-style health code, by turning the LeaveHomeSafe code red for PCR-positive residents to prevent them from all public venues and giving a yellow code to overseas arrivals under mandatory quarantine.

Lo said by adopting the health code system, the gov will also consider replacing part of the 7-day mandatory hotel quarantine with health monitor at home. But they cannot enter high-risk venues eg hospitals and elderly homes and are prevented from high-risk mass-off activities.

Asked whether the new measures will drive more people to hide their RAT positive results from the gov, Lo said "not reporting is contravening the law".

But for now, reporting RAT positive results to the gov remains a voluntary decision. Not sure which law Lo was referring to.

Lo emphasized that the new codes are meant to prevented infected persons from leaving home and entering public venues and are not designed for real-time movement tracking.

Lo also said the government does not have any consideration for city-wide lock down at all.

Asked why the new administration overturned the previous government's promise of not adding real-name registration to the LeaveHomeSafe app, Lo said "changes are constant" "changing a policy doesn't mean we are in conflict with the last administration".

Asked why the gov has so little trust in the citizens that it puts both a bracelet and a red code on the infected persons, Lo said, "why Hong Kong needs police and the court? Because we can never guarantee that every single citizen will fully observe the rules."