Secretary for Health Prof Lo Chung-mau emphasised that the Hong Kong Health Code system does not have any tracking function and its goal is to relieve the restrictions imposed on all inbound travellers.

Prof Lo made the remarks while explaining the usage of the health code to reporters after attending a radio programme today.

He said: “The whole purpose of the red code is to identify confirmed COVID-19 cases. For the majority of the people, there is no need to have any change in the LeaveHomeSafe app.

“In fact, by law, people who are confirmed to have the COVID-19 infection should actually stay at the designated isolation area whether it is a designated place or home isolation.

“For the yellow code, we meant to use this not actually to increase the restriction but to relieve the restriction imposed on all those inbound travellers.

“With the yellow code, we will be able to identify them more precisely, to avoid them from getting into the high-risk areas exposing the community to the risk of infection, and at the same time, we will be able to perhaps reduce the designated hotel quarantine period.”

Prof Lo added that the yellow code will enable the Government to reduce the designated hotel quarantine period for inbound travellers and improve its international communication.