HONG KONG, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- A spokesman of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government announced on Monday that the Shenzhen Bay Control Point (SBCP) will provide round-the-clock cargo clearance service starting from 0:00 on Dec. 10.

The SBCP's original operating hours were from 6:30 a.m. to 0:00 daily.

"In the 2019 Policy Address, the chief executive announced the HKSAR government's plan to extend the operating hours of the SBCP to 24 hours by phases in 2020. Due to the COVID-19 epidemic situation, the Hong Kong and Shenzhen governments agreed to put on hold the implementation of such plan," the spokesman said.

In response to the COVID-19 epidemic situation, the Hong Kong and Shenzhen governments have formulated effective quarantine measures for cross-boundary goods vehicle drivers under the co-operation mechanism on joint prevention and control to ensure the stable supply of commodities and food to Hong Kong on one hand, and strictly prevent cross-boundary transmission of COVID-19 on the other hand.

To further support the logistics flow between the two places and to progressively implement the "East in East out, West in West out" planning strategy for cross-boundary goods traffic, the Hong Kong and Shenzhen governments decided after discussions to extend the operating hours of cargo clearance to 24 hours at the SBCP, the spokesman said.

After extending the cargo clearance operating hours at the SBCP, both the Hong Kong and Shenzhen governments will continue to stringently carry out quarantine measures for cross-boundary goods vehicle drivers to prevent the transmission of COVID-19, the spokesman stressed.

Due to the epidemic development, the operating hours of passenger clearance have been adjusted to 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. daily.

The governments of the two places will consider when to implement round-the-clock passenger clearance at the SBCP with regards to the epidemic development, the spokesman added.