LeaveHomeSafe Not Longer Useful for COVID-19 Fight: Expert

The LeaveHomeSafe app is no longer an effective anti-epidemic measure, government pandemic adviser David Hui told RTHK radio on Wednesday (Oct. 5), as reported by RTHK News on the same day.

Hui, a professor at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, said that while the health app was useful for tracking COVID-19 infections in the city during the early stages of the pandemic, it is no longer useful for this purpose and should be dropped.

“The number of confirmed cases [in Hong Kong] in recent days is slowly falling. The number of deaths is small. The number of patients receiving intensive treatment is also very small... and the vaccination rate is getting higher and higher. There absolutely are conditions for [the government] to relax social distancing measures,” he told RTHK.

He also added that the government ought to scrap the three-day amber health code restriction for incoming travellers to boost travel to Hong Kong.

“The government should consider implementing the zero-plus-zero arrangement as soon as possible, preferably before November. There will be many large-scale conferences in November," Hui said.