During this COVID-19 pandemic, imported cases have played the role of triggering outbreaks in their arrival city and exported cases are used to infer the infection risk in their departure city (Imai et al., 2020; Menkir et al., 2021). Hong Kong, as a hub of international travel, faced this situation in particular. However, we argue that in the current phase of the pandemic, the role of exported cases in inferring the infection risk in their departure city loses its power; we use Hong Kong, an international travel hub, as an example.
