Photo taken on Aug. 5, 2019 shows China's national flag and the flag of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region on the Golden Bauhinia Square in Hong Kong, south China. (Xinhua/Wu Xiaochu)

Most of the Hong Kong delegation to the upcoming annual political meetings will fly to Beijing on Wednesday where they will be under strict epidemic-prevention and control measures during this year's "two sessions," including residing in sealed-off accommodation and meeting rooms, and there might be no 14-day of quarantine when they return to Hong Kong from Beijing, a Hong Kong deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, told the Global Times. 

Tam Yiu-chung, Hong Kong's deputy to the NPC Standing Committee, told the Global Times in an exclusive interview on Thursday that a large number of Hong Kong deputies to the NPC are scheduled to arrive at Shenzhen on April 19 where they will take nucleic acid tests before flying to Beijing the next day. Only those who have a negative test result will be permitted to fly to Beijing, Tam said as the capital remains on high alert to ensure that the country's most important political event, which has been delayed for over two months due to coronavirus epidemic, will be carried out in a safe environment, especially when sporadic cluster infections have reoccurred in places like Central China's Hubei and Northeast China's Jilin. 

"Unlike meetings in previous years, delegates won't be allowed to freely leave their hotels. There will be a shuttle bus to pick us at designated hotels and transfer us to the Great Hall of the People. It's all seal-off management," Tam said. 

He also noted that there won't be any diner gatherings this year given the strict prevention and control work. "It's been said that Beijing Hotel has been fully prepared, for example, every delegate will sit alone and have diner by himself," Tam said. 

However, at least 10 deputies to NPC and members to Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, who are also Legislative Council members, will be absent for this year's two sessions as they have to take part in second reading of the National Anthem Bill at the LegCo meeting on May 27.

This year's two sessions will convene on May 21 and May 22 when thousands of deputies and representatives from all over the country will gather in the capital city to attend the country's largest legislative and political consultative conferences since the outbreak of the epidemic. While convening the two sessions signals that China has brought the epidemic under control, the top authority urged that the epidemic prevention and control work not be relaxed, which is a regular task to guard against rebound of the epidemic. 

As part of efforts in preventing mass gathering and keeping social distancing, some of the meetings will likely to be held via videoconference or through live streaming, as some experts have suggested, which also aroused public attention on how this year's meetings would convene at such special moment in continuous virus containment. The sessions have been shortened to seven days from the usual two weeks. 

"We plan to fly back to Hong Kong on May 29. We might not need to go through another 14-day quarantine when we return to Hong Kong but it's up to HKSAR government's arrangement," Tam said, noting that a mandatory 14-day quarantine might not be necessary as the outbreak has been largely contained, or taking necessary tests when arrive at Hong Kong is also acceptable to replace quarantine.