HONG KONG, April 4 (Xinhua) -- The operating hours of passenger clearance services at Hong Kong port of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge will be shortened from Sunday, China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government announced Saturday.

In a statement, the HKSAR government said that the operating hours of passenger clearance services at the Passenger Clearance Building will be shortened to run from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.

The operating hours of the clearance services for private cars will be shortened to run from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day, according to the statement.

The round-the-clock services for cargo clearance will remain unchanged.

The move is taken to responding to the dire situation of the COVID-19 epidemic in Hong Kong. The HKSAR government, the Macao Special Administrative Region government and the Zhuhai Municipal government have agreed to shorten the operating hours of passenger clearance services at the three ports of the bridge to reduce cross-boundary people flow and better utilize resources for epidemic prevention work at the control points, the statement said.