Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said she doesn’t yet foresee a need to alter plans to reopen the city’s border with the mainland, despite China reporting its first case of the omicron variant.
Lam, Hong Kong’s chief executive, told reporters at a regular news briefing Tuesday that the officials from the city had met with mainland counterparts in neighboring Guangdong province to discuss reopening plans. The discussions are continuing despite China’s northern port of Tianjin confirming the country’s first omicron case in an incoming traveler, according to the Global Times newspaper.
“At this moment, I do not see the change to what we are doing in terms of resumption of normal travel into the mainland, as a result of omicron,” Lam told reporters. “But because this variant and the whole situation could be changing very rapidly, so I could provide a no absolute guarantee.”
While Hong Kong has so far reported seven omicron imported cases, it hasn’t confirmed any infections in the community.