Earlier on, the Secretary for Food and Health issued the "Vaccine Pass direction" (the Direction) which provides that from today (February 24) onwards, the Vaccine Pass will be applicable to all catering premises and scheduled premises including markets specified in the Direction under the Prevention and Control of Disease (Requirements and Directions) (Business and Premises) Regulation (Cap. 599F). A spokesman for the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) reminds operators of catering businesses to pay attention to the arrangements under Vaccine Pass, and strictly comply with relevant requirements and directions.

     The FEHD spokesman said, "The current epidemic situation in Hong Kong is of grave concern. The implementation of Vaccine Pass is one of the tightened social distancing measures which can at the same time further strengthen Hong Kong's anti-epidemic capability."

     Under the Vaccine Pass arrangements, except issued with a COVID-19 Vaccination Medical Exemption Certificate or for other specified scenarios with exemption, all persons aged 12 or above entering or remaining on any specified premises (including all catering premises, FEHD markets and hawker bazaars) must have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, and are required to carry an electronic version or a paper copy of their COVID-19 vaccination record or Exemption Certificate, and present it as required by law enforcement officers during spot checks or other enforcement actions. 

     Catering premises including FEHD cooked food centres/markets are premises subject to "active checking". All persons entering catering premises are required to actively present to the person-in-charge of the premises their vaccination record or Exemption Certificate and the relevant QR code, including that saved in "LeaveHomeSafe" mobile application or shown on mobile applications such as "iAM Smart" or "eHealth", or the QR code shown on their paper vaccination record for scanning by the person-in-charge. Any person whose vaccination record (e.g. non-local vaccination record) or Exemption Certificate does not contain a QR code is required to provide his or her personal particulars (name, contact number, date and time of visit) by completing a specified form for retention by the person-in-charge of the premises. Children aged under 12 not accompanied by an adult are also required to provide the relevant personal particulars by completing a specified form for retention by the person-in-charge of the premises.

     Operators of catering business must display the Direction in a specified format in a prominent position at or near every entrance of the specified premises. They are also required to take appropriate measures to inspect the vaccination records or Exemption Certificates of the persons entering or remaining on the premises to ensure that the visitors fulfill the requirements under the Vaccine Pass. Operators must use the QR Code Verification Scanner mobile application developed by the Government to scan the QR code of a vaccination record or Exemption Certificate of persons entering the premises. For any person whose vaccination record (e.g. non-local vaccination record) or Exemption Certificate does not contain a QR code, or any children aged under 12 not accompanied by an adult, operators of catering businesses must use a specified form to collect the personal particulars of the relevant person (name, contact number, date and time of visit) and keep the record for 31 days.

     Operators of catering business must also ensure that all staff members involved in the operation of the premises fulfill the requirements under the Vaccine Pass. Unless having been issued with a COVID-19 Vaccination Medical Exemption Certificate, staff at catering premises must have received two doses of COVID-19 vaccine by today. For catering premises operating under Types B or C Modes of Operation over the previous Specified Period (February 10 to 23), if their staff have yet to receive two doses of vaccine by today but have received one dose, relevant premises operators and their staff would not be deemed to be breaching the requirement that staff members must have received two doses of vaccine if they adopt the following measures:
     (i) ensure that such staff members have already made an appointment for receiving the second dose of vaccine on or before March 30 this year, and ensure that the relevant staff members keep record of the above appointment; and
     (ii) before such staff members receive the second dose, arrange for them to undergo a polymerase chain reaction-based nucleic acid test for COVID-19 once every seven days starting from today, and ensure that such staff obtain SMS notification containing the result of the test before the end of every subsequent 7-day period and keep record of each SMS notification for 31 days.

     The spokesman also reminded operators of catering businesses that premises yet to register having reached the air change requirement pursuant to the directions, must be closed from today until registration is completed.

     In addition, FEHD markets are premises subject to "passive checking". Persons entering the markets are not required to actively produce their vaccination records or Exemption Certificates. The FEHD will display conspicuously at the entrances the Direction in the specified format to let people entering the markets know that the premises fall within the applicable premises under the Vaccine Pass. 

     The spokesman said the FEHD will issue advisory letters to operators of catering premises and related market tenants on the latest arrangements and remind them to strictly comply with the various anti-epidemic regulations and restrictions. The FEHD will set out the specific arrangement of Vaccine Pass with FAQs, samples of notices for the premises and Declaration/Information Collection Form for Persons Entering Specified Premises on its dedicated webpage under its website (www.fehd.gov.hk). Operators of catering premises and related market tenants may visit the webpage to understand more details.

Ends/Thursday, February 24, 2022
Issued at HKT 2:05

NNNN