8:30am-9:20am: border reopening 8:30am-9:20am: Benjamin Cowling Head of the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Hong Kong 8:30am-9:00am: Mark Michelson, Chairman, Asia CEO Forum at IMA Asia 9:00am-9:20am: Sze Lai-shan, Deputy Director, The Society for Community Organisation (SoCo) 9:20am-9:30am: World Cup 9:20am-9:30am: Atom Cheung, RTHK sports reporter On Monday’s Backchat, we’re talking about plans to reopen the border with mainland China and the surge in Covid cases in Beijing and other major cities on the mainland. Chief Executive John Lee said it's "highly possible" to reopen the border in 2023, amid reports that thousands of customs, immigration and police have been dispatched to prepare border checkpoints for an expected surge in traffic. But at the same time, there are reports of growing numbers of infections in major cities across China. And a University of Hong Kong study predicted that nearly 1 million people in mainland China could die from Covid-19 if the country fully reopens without fourth Covid booster, antivirals and social-distancing curbs. How prepared are we for the reopening of the border? And how concerned should we be about the emergence of new Covid variants from the surge of cases in China? And at 9.20am, we'll be joined by RTHK sports reporter Atom Cheung to wrap up the World Cup 2022.