(Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong’s new health chief said travelers can be allowed to conduct some of their quarantine at home, as long as a China-like health code system is in place to manage their movement. 

The city is also planning to introduce tracking bracelets for Covid patients isolating at home, to ensure they don’t leave their premises. A traffic light health code system like in China will better manage social distancing for the local population, said Secretary for Health Lo Chung-mau in a Monday press briefing. 

Lo said the technology for the health code is still being developed but hopes that it can launch as soon as possible. He sketched out how travel quarantine might change when the system is in place, saying that people will get a yellow code after finishing hotel isolation, and serve the rest of the period at home. The yellow code will allow them to go to work but bar them from high-risk places like elderly care homes, or venues where masks are removed. 

Hong Kong Plans China-Like Health Code System as Outbreak Grows

Hong Kong’s new administration is swiftly implementing new Covid strategies as the Asian financial hub faces a resurgence in Covid hospitalizations and severe cases. Such a health code system would bring the city more in line with the Covid Zero strategies used in China, which prioritizes stamping out infection at great social and economic cost. 

But Lo said the local system would not track people’s movements, unlike in China, and that no one would find their code suddenly turning red, preventing them from entry to places. He also reiterated that Hong Kong had no plans to lock down the city to fight infection. 

Officials said at the briefing that the outbreak is intensifying, and estimated that daily hospitalizations will rise to 300 in late July under the worst case scenario. The city reported 2,611 new local cases on Monday. 

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