disease continuing because of easing restrictions as well as the lack of vaccination among old people. they are catching up old people. they are catching up on that front. otherwise people can already get extra boosters if they want in hong kong, but that is the main push now, for old and young people. martin, you are wearing a facemask. are there tight measures around social mixing around social distancing and mask wearing? around social distancing and mask wearing? exactly. if we talk about mask wearing? exactly. if we talk about hong mask wearing? exactly. if we talk about hong kong, - mask wearing? exactly. if we talk about hong kong, social| talk about hong kong, social distancing has already been lifted but yes, i still had to wear a mask and that is by law. if i take it down, there are plenty of police officers who may issue a fine. people are somehow adhering to it because they don t want to catch covid themselves and they are not
or less like a cold orflu, you don t need to report yourself to the authorities if you get it, and you are very unlikely to be quarantined or other measures to be imposed on you. mainland china also stopped pressing criminal charges martin yip. more now our top story and rishi sunak says he s willing to sit down with the royal college of nursing to discuss pay. but speaking to the bbc, the prime minister insisted any talks would be about future wages not the current deal. here s our health correspondent katharine da costa. they have asked for around a 19% pay increase. but the general secretary of the rcn says she is willing to meet the government in the middle, indicating she would consider a 10% pay rise. that s because unions have said that pay has been falling in real terms over the last decade or so, and salaries are not keeping up with the cost of living crisis, and they are saying that is putting pressure on
earlier. for the first time in nearly three years, china has lifted quarantine rules for people arriving from abroad. it s the final step in the government s dismantling of its zero covid policies. the change has driven a rapid rise in covid cases and has prompted other countries to impose restrictions on chinese arrivals. martin yip is at the border between mainland china and hong kong. china has been rapidly de escalating these covid i9 control measures, literally walking away from what used to be called zero covid policy. so if you wonder how rapid we are talking about, two things that happened today on the other side of this bridge might give you some clue. macau, the only place in china that could let you gamble inside a casino treats covid i9 from today as an endemic disease. that means it s something more or less like a cold orflu, you don t need to report yourself to the authorities if you get it, and you are very unlikely to be quarantined or other measures to be imposed on yo
singapore and thailand. south korea will impose testing before and after arriving in the country as well as restricting the issue of short term visas for chinese nationals. japan and italy require testing upon arrival and quarantine for those who test positive. malaysia says it will begin screening all inbound travellers from china and elsewhere for fever. australia, canada, france, spain and several other countries are also all imposing some kind of covid testing or vaccination requirements. let s hear now from our correspondent, martin yip. time to go home, finally. here at the hong kong checkpoint, travellers came streaming on again this sunday morning heading for the western province. this is in mainland china. the crowd is much smaller in size than before, but still lively
and i couldn t go back to see them even when they were ill, so i m really happy to go back and see them now. i can t wait to go back to the mainland. it s been three years. we have no time to delay now the boarder is unimpeded. last time i came to hong kong i had to wait for two weeks. in the end, i had no choice but to go back to turkey . because i couldn t enter china. the bbc s martin yip has been monitoring movement on the border between hong kong and mainland china. he told us that there are still are certain conditions for travellers entering mainland china. you have to produce a valid test result, a pcr test with a negative result over the past 48 hours before they could go into that terminal, go through immigration and get onto the bus. i just saw a couple taking five or six suitcases between them, they