HONG KONG - Secretary for Food and Health of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government Sophia Chan said on Wednesday that Hong Kong will develop a local health code system to facilitate people traveling between Hong Kong and Guangdong, or Hong Kong and Macao.

Chan said in a written reply to HKSAR Legislative Council members that the Hong Kong SAR, Guangdong province and the Macao SAR are considering a pilot scheme on mutual recognition of test results of COVID-19 and mutual exemption of quarantine in a bid to relax cross-boundary flow of people among the three places within certain limits.

The "Hong Kong Health Code", one of the HKSAR government's preparatory tasks to complement the launch of the pilot scheme, enables the virus test results of participants of the pilot scheme in Hong Kong to be uploaded onto the code, Chan said.

She introduced that before departing from Hong Kong, eligible persons with negative test results can connect to the electronic platform through a web browser using their mobile phones or other devices, and apply for the "Hong Kong Health Code" online and download it to the relevant mobile phone or device.

To facilitate the mutual recognition of test results by the boundary control officers of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, participants of the pilot scheme can on their own accord choose to exchange the "Hong Kong Health Code" for use on the "Yuekang Code" system of Guangdong or "Macao Health Code" system of Macao for health declaration purpose when entering Guangdong or Macao, Chan said.

She stressed that the "Hong Kong Health Code" computer system will only collect basic personal information and nucleic acid test results from applicants for the purpose of applying for the system, and applicants' information security including data will be protected in strict accordance with regulations.

The HKSAR government will announce the details as soon as possible once the governments of Guangdong, Hong Kong SAR and Macao SAR have completed discussion on the pilot scheme, said Chan.