Most residents in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) support the decision made by China's top legislature on the HKSAR Legislative Council (LegCo) on Tuesday, said former chief executive of the HKSAR Leung Chun-ying. 

The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, adopted the decision for the sixth LegCo of the HKSAR to continue to perform duties until the term of the seventh LegCo starts. The decision was made after the election of the seventh-term LegCo, originally scheduled for September 6, was postponed for a year due to the COVID-19 outbreak. 

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Leung, who is currently vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference – China's top political advisory body, expressed his support for the decision during an interview with CGTN on Tuesday. 

Calling the decision "legal and reasonable," he said it will guarantee that the HKSAR government can concentrate on fighting the COVID-19 pandemic together with various social sectors. 

Hong Kong's health authorities reported 33 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, including 15 infections with unknown sources, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 4,181.

Leung also thanked medical support teams from the mainland for helping Hong Kong with nucleic acid testing. It is impossible for Hong Kong to conduct comprehensive testing among its 7.5 million residents by itself within a short period of time, he noted. 

The HKSAR government said last week that three national-level testing service providers, namely BGI, KingMed and HybriBio, would carry out nearly 500,000 tests a day, boosting Hong Kong's testing capacity substantially. 

Meanwhile, Leung said the national security law for the HKSAR has been very effective since it came into force over a month ago, noting that social order in Hong Kong has been greatly improved. 

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Commenting on the recent arrest of media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying for suspected violation of the law, Leung said the incident has nothing to do with democracy or freedom of expression. 

"It has nothing to do with democratic activities or media activities in Hong Kong," the former Hong Kong chief said. "He is accused of violating the national security law and other laws in Hong Kong. So it has nothing to do with freedom of the press or freedom of expression. It has everything to do with his personal offenses against the laws of Hong Kong." 

Lai, owner of Apple Daily newspaper, was released on bail early on Wednesday.