Government pandemic advisers on Tuesday said the decision came at the right time, but continuous monitoring of new subvariants and severe cases remained necessary.

The change indicates the government believes the immediate health impact of infection on the population is minimal, but a risk remains of the disease spreading locally through human-to-human transmission.

“The lowering of the response level from emergency to alert is a major milestone in Hong Kong’s efforts to fight the epidemic in the past three years,” a spokesman for the government said.

“Under the current new normal system, Covid-19 is managed in the same way as common upper respiratory diseases, and epidemic prevention measures also focus on protecting high-risk groups.”