China and Hong Kong have confirmed plans to reopen their shared border on Sunday after nearly three years of coronavirus restrictions that have stifled cross-border tourism and business activity.But crossings to and from mainland China will be limited to an estimated 60,000 a day each way, Hong Kong’s chief executive John Lee said on Thursday. The visits will be the first to be exempt from quarantine on arrival since early 2020, but amount to a fraction of pre-pandemic figures.

The easing of cross-border restrictions was timed to coincide with Beijing dropping entry restrictions for overseas travellers, including scrapping PCR tests on arrival, which Chinese authorities announced late last month in an abrupt exit from the country’s zero-Covid containment policy.

“With the approval of the central government, [Hong Kong’s] path returning to normalcy is now nearly 100 per cent complete,” Lee told a press conference.