Nasal spray #Covid-19 vaccine co-developed by Hong Kong scientists approved for emergency use in mainland China in ‘historic breakthrough’ | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3202179/nasal-spray-covid-19-vaccine-co-developed-hong-kong-scientists-approved-emerge
Yuen said the nasal vaccine would serve as a complement to, but not as a replacement for, conventional vaccination.
Covid-19 patients under home quarantine to wear tracking wristbands from July 15, Hong Kong health minister says; city logs 2,863 infections | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3184846/coronavirus-hong-kong-covid-19-app-update-will
Covid-19 patients under home quarantine to wear tracking wristbands from July 15, Hong Kong health minister says; city logs 2,863 infections
Health chief Professor Lo Chung-mau also says government is studying to turn part of seven-day hotel quarantine into home isolation. Lo earlier unveiled plans for online bookings for Covid tests for travellers heading to mainland China.All Covid-19 patients under home quarantine will be required to wear tracking wristbands starting from Friday, Hong Kong’s health minister has announced, while revealing the government is preparing for a worst-case scenario as infection numbers rebound.The new plans came as the city recorded 2,863 cases, including 252 imported ones. Seven additional deaths were reported. Hong Kong’s overall coronavirus tally stands at 1,273,663 infections, with 9,419 related fatalities.Secretary of Health Professor Lo Chung-mau also said the government was studying to turn part of the seven-day hotel quarantine for arrivals from overseas into home isolation, to be conducted in a closed-loop arrangement.Lo announced the measures hours after he unveiled plans to allow online bookings for Covid-19 tests for travellers heading to mainland China via the Shenzhen Bay Port and expand the screening quota, apologising for long queues after people earlier swamped the border crossing.To tackle a backlog of nucleic acid tests at the border checkpoint, Lo said a booking system would be able to process 400 people per hour, with a peak of 500. He said the maximum daily capacity for tests would be raised to 2,500 from 1,300 with the company conducting them more than doubling screening machines from 23 to 47.“On Sunday morning, within three hours, about 1,200 people were crossing at the same time, so this created long queues,” Lo said. Shenzhen Bay Port, one of just two land passenger crossings that remain open amid the pandemic, was packed with crowds over the weekend after the Guangdong provincial city boosted the number of quarantine hotel rooms by 700 to 2,000 a day and added more spots for those in need.Earlier in the day, Lo shed some light on planned updates to the “Leave Home Safe” app, saying the aim was to enforce quarantine orders for those at home, adding that currently there was no way to ensure infected residents could not visit high-risk locations such as restaurants, hospitals and care homes.
Lo, who first revealed officials were considering adjusting the “Leave Home Safe” app to require real-name registration a day earlier, stressed authorities were primarily considering a red health code for those who were found to be positive in nucleic acid tests, while real-name registration would make it easier to quarantine those infected.He also said a yellow health code, for example, could be used for overseas arrivals who were quarantining at home, as potentially they could be infected with Covid-19.
“These are people who shouldn’t enter high-risk locations but can go to work point to point,” he said. Macau closes the Grand Lisboa, the first casino shuttered in the Covid-19 pandemicThe mainland uses a three-colour system, which indicates a person’s Covid-19 status via QR codes.
The mainland’s health code app is used to track and contain patients by providing central authorities with user data such as locations, times and personal interactions.The QR codes generated follow a traffic-light system, with the colours affecting where residents can go and how they are treated: a green code declares a resident has not been exposed to any potential cases or risky areas, while yellow and red codes mean they are of higher risk.In December last year, Hong Kong launched a health code system which is built into the “Leave Home Safe” app and compatible with the mainland’s for people who travel across the border.The new health secretary on Monday addressed concerns that the planned updates would allow people’s movements to be traced, saying their main purpose was to identify high-risk individuals and not “track” them down.Some technology experts noted the “Leave Home Safe” app already contained certain personal details such as vaccine records, which included the user’ name and Hong Kong identity card number.While Lo did not give any more details about the planned update, he said the government was now looking at how to define which cases fell under red, yellow or green codes.‘Faster, daily Covid PCR tests could replace Hong Kong hotel quarantine’
9 Jul 2022 He also did not give a timetable for the change, but said authorities hoped to bring them in as soon as possible, with the government already looking at how to make the updates. University of Hong Kong microbiologist Dr Ho Pak-leung told the same programme the government’s goals of minimising infected people’s mobility could theoretically be achieved by suspending their vaccine pass, as it was needed to enter any high-risk venues and operators were required to scan it.
He also said he believed contact tracing should not be the city’s main concern right now. That was because of the large number of infections and a relatively high percentage of cases of unknown origin in the community.
#Covid-19#migrant#migration#hongkong#chine#zerocovid#depistage#passevaccinal#QRCode#hotel#quarantaine#casimporte#testPCR#vaccination#mobilite#frontiere
Hong Kong considers Covid health code system similar to mainland China, city logs 2,992 infections | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3184763/hong-kong-mulls-coronavirus-code-system-similar
Hong Kong considers Covid health code system similar to mainland China, city logs 2,992 infections. Secretary for Health Dr Lo Chung-mau says proposed measure would prevent freedoms of uninfected residents from being affected by Covid-positive people. Lack of protection of individual privacy and sensitive information with code remains concern among public, says Democratic Party spokesman Ramon Yuen
Hong Kong may adjust its Covid-19 app to require real-name registration as mainland China does to ensure residents subject to compulsory testing orders avoid entering high-risk areas, the city’s new health minister has said. But Secretary for Health Dr Lo Chung-mau on Sunday brushed aside concerns that the proposed measure would be unpopular with Hongkongers, arguing it would enhance the freedoms of uninfected residents. Lo said the measure was justified, given the government was seeking to avoid tightening social-distancing measures.“[If] we can’t find infected people or can’t quarantine them on time, we end up ‘quarantining’ people who are negative. We hope we don’t have to do this,” he said.
Health officials on Sunday reported 2,992 new Covid-19 cases, including 219 imported ones, and two additional deaths. The city’s overall coronavirus tally stands at 1,270,800 infections and 9,412 related fatalities.
Commissioner of Customs and Excise Louise Ho Pui-shan was placed under quarantine after one of her colleagues tested preliminary-positive, although her own test came back negative. Meanwhile, the health minister said there were limitations to the city’s “Leave Home Safe” contact-tracing app, which could not prevent coronavirus-positive people from accessing public areas or inform residents they were entering high-risk locations. While he noted that adding a tracking function was “not the first thing to do”, Lo said he believed it was more important for residents to register their real names to use the app.“[The app] is currently limited to telling whether a person is considered to be high-risk, and that they are not supposed to go to higher-risk areas before they do PCR [polymerase chain reaction] testing,” he said.
Lo added that the current compulsory testing order, despite its name, had “no coercive means at all”, making it unfair for residents as high-risk people could still roam around the city without detection.
When asked whether the potential measure could have any similarities to the health code systems used by Macau and the mainland, Lo replied that the Hong Kong government had taken both into consideration as a part of the proposal.The mainland’s health code app is used to track and contain Covid-19 patients by providing central authorities with user data such as locations, times and personal interactions.The QR codes generally follow a traffic-light system, with the colours affecting where residents can go and how they are treated: a green code declares a resident has not been exposed to any potential cases or risky areas, while yellow and red codes mean they are of higher risk.Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the Centre for Health Protection’s communicable disease branch, said she had no comment about Lo’s proposal and that the government would make relevant announcements when it was ready.But she acknowledged the contact-tracing app had limitations and said there were no estimate on the number of infected people who had not reported their positive case to authorities.Although the app had residents’ phone numbers, authorities could still face difficulties in reaching some people for contact-tracing purposes if they did not answer the calls, Chuang said.The centre also had to rely on other government departments to obtain residents’ vaccine pass information whenever there was an outbreak, as it did not have access to such details, she added.She said the centre did not have any information on the number of visitors at particular premises if no infections were reported there.“Macau adopted the mainland-like code system but still suffered an outbreak recently. After all, measures on social distancing and quarantine are still key to controlling the spread, especially in cities that have not reached herd immunity,” he said.Leung added that the proportion of the population in both cities that was immune to the virus due to vaccination or prior infection was still low compared with other places. If Hong Kong implemented the mainland’s app functions, it was crucial to reduce the time needed to synchronise the compulsory testing orders with residents’ phones, otherwise it would be futile if there were delays that lasted for days, he added.Ramon Yuen Hoi-man, the Democratic Party’s healthcare policy spokesman, said the lack of protection of individual privacy and sensitive information with the code system remained a concern among the public.He added that he was worried about the implications of introducing new restrictive measures after the fifth wave of infections had already subsided.“Overseas research has shown that stringent Covid-19 measures have been unfavourable to social harmony and unity. Is this something the new government really hopes to pursue?” he said.Medical and health services lawmaker Dr David Lam Tzit-yuen said privacy issues were not a concern as long as authorities were restricted to tracking a person’s identity and other personal information only if they were deemed to be at risk.“[The code system] is the way to go for better protecting the community. Privacy issues, which could be solved by the right algorithms, should not trump safety of others,” he said.Health minister Lo also said he planned to increase the frequency of PCR tests and require high-risk people, such as employees of nursing homes, to undergo such screening once a week, on top of rapid antigen tests, before increasing it to twice a week or every 48 hours.The new administration led by Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu has repeatedly stressed the importance of using PCR tests at an earlier stage more effectively, which it said would exclude people who were not infected from tough restrictions.
#Covid-19#migrant#migration#sante#hongkong#macau#chine#QRcode#controlesanitaire#politiquesanitaire#depistage#zerocovid#testPCR#restrictionsanitaire#surveillance
Coronavirus: Hong Kong confirms 6,646 new cases as government considers mass at-home testing exercise to help ‘gauge infection situation’ | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3172549/coronavirus-hong-kong-government-considering-mass
Coronavirus: Hong Kong confirms 6,646 new cases as government considers mass at-home testing exercise to help ‘gauge infection situation’
A source says the mass at-home testing will serve as a ‘voluntary and supplementary’ measure, and will not replace an official universal screening exercise
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Published: 3:06pm, 31 Mar, 2022
Updated: 5:23pm, 31 Mar, 2022
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Volunteers pack kits of rapid Covid-19 tests, masks and medicine set to be distributed to Hong Kong residents at Tai Wo Hau Sports Centre. Photo: Dickson Lee
Volunteers pack kits of rapid Covid-19 tests, masks and medicine set to be distributed to Hong Kong residents at Tai Wo Hau Sports Centre. Photo: Dickson Lee
Hong Kong residents may be asked to take part in mass at-home Covid-19 testing via kits set to be distributed from Saturday in order to help the government better gauge the current epidemic situation, the city’s leader has said.Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor floated the possibility at her regular coronavirus press conference on Thursday after being asked whether the government still planned to pursue a controversial compulsory universal testing drive.“Since we are distributing rapid antigen tests in the anti-epidemic service bags, we would like to explore whether we can make use of this convenient and accurate tool … so that we can gauge the infection situation,” Lam said, referring to packs of supplies and medicine that will be handed out to all Hong Kong residents.Lam added that the current daily caseload, though on the decline, was still too high to conduct universal screening via government-run testing sites, noting the healthcare system was unlikely to be able to cope with the new infections the exercise might uncover.The city confirmed 6,646 new coronavirus infections on Thursday, the sixth consecutive day the caseload was below the 10,000 mark. Another 119 deaths were reported, including 17 fatalities that had not been taken into account due to a backlog.
The overall tally of confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic stands at 1,157,415, while the total number of related deaths has reached 7,825.
The government will begin distributing the anti-epidemic service bags – containing 20 rapid tests, 20 KN95 masks and two boxes of proprietary traditional Chinese medicine – to nearly 3 million households on Saturday. Lam said it would take about a week to hand out all the packages.
Details of the proposed mass rapid testing exercise would be announced if and when the plans were confirmed, Lam added.A source said the mass rapid testing, which would be undertaken by residents on a single day, would serve as a “voluntary and supplementary” measure, and would not replace the universal screening exercise. The source noted that experts had suggested the best time for the universal screening would be when daily caseloads were consistently in the three-digit range.
The government announced a suspension of the universal screening exercise on March 21. Lam said mainland Chinese and Hong Kong experts had concluded that public resources should not be spent on such an exercise when the daily caseload remained high. Instead, it should be carried out towards the end of the current fifth wave of infections.Lam later told lawmakers she did not have a crystal ball to predict when the testing could be rolled out.Jack Chan Jick-chi, acting secretary for home affairs, told a radio programme on Thursday that each Hong Kong household would be entitled to one package of supplies, assuming it had three to four members, while larger ones would be allowed to collect additional kits as needed. Special arrangements would be made for people sharing living spaces in subdivided units.He added that volunteers and civil servants deployed to package and distribute the kits would be required to be vaccinated and to conduct rapid Covid-19 tests before performing their duties.
At Thursday’s press conference, Lam also said Covid-19 patients from elderly care homes with mild or no symptoms could be sent directly to government isolation centres rather than the emergency wards of public hospitals. The move was aimed at relieving pressure on the city’s overburdened public healthcare system.Among the six isolation facilities, the Kai Tak Holding Centre is the largest, with 1,200 beds. All the facilities are able to prescribe the oral anti-Covid drugs molnupiravir and Paxlovid.
Traditional Chinese medicine practitioners dispatched from the mainland would also be on hand to treat symptoms and facilitate patients’ recovery, Lam said.Meanwhile, the city will lift flight bans on nine high-risk countries on Friday to allow fully vaccinated Hong Kong residents to return. The quarantine period for arrivals to the city will also be slashed from two weeks to one, provided they test negative on their sixth and seventh days of isolation.Lam said on Thursday that an interdepartmental meeting would be conducted to ensure that testing and transport for new arrivals went smoothly, after noting the day before that the number of incoming travellers was expected to jump from around 300 a day to some 2,000.
“We have made full preparations for their return, we hope they have a pleasant trip back to Hong Kong,” she said.
#Covid-19#migrant#migration#hongkong#chine#sante#frontiere#circulation#depistageuniversel#circulationthérapeutique#medecinetraditionnelle#medecinechinoise#retour#resident
Coronavirus: Hong Kong shuts public beaches amid Covid-19 surge, but frustrated residents ask: why can’t we swim and relax? | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3170833/why-not-let-us-swim-and-relax-frustrated
Coronavirus: Hong Kong shuts public beaches amid Covid-19 surge, but frustrated residents ask: why can’t we swim and relax?Government closes all public beaches amid outcry from mainland Chinese online users over social-distancing measures perceived as lax Residents react with mixed emotions, with one restaurant manager urging authorities to give clear deadline to allow businesses to adjust
Residents have expressed their frustration at a decision by Hong Kong authorities to close all public beaches amid a Covid-19 outbreak, while some have called it necessary as a result of frequent social-distancing violations.On Wednesday, the government announced that all public beaches would close from Thursday until further notice to reduce social gatherings and the risk of virus transmission. The measure kicked in as the city confirmed 21,650 new coronavirus cases.A source had said the decision followed the circulation of posts on Chinese social media platforms Weibo and WeChat which compared scenes of Shenzhen’s empty streets and closed subway stations with Hong Kong’s crowded beaches and malls.
The posts went viral among mainland online users, who criticised Hong Kong’s looser social-distancing measures, contrasting these with the lockdown across the border. They blamed Hongkongers for contributing to the surge in cases on the mainland.
#Covid-19#migration#migrant#chine#hongkong#sante#frontiere#zerocovid#restrictionsanitaire#circulation#politiquesante
Coronavirus Hong Kong: use mainland Chinese help well, plan for next stage of battle and ensure social stability, top Beijing official tells local government | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3170759/coronavirus-hong-kong-use-mainland-chinese-help
Coronavirus Hong Kong: use mainland Chinese help well, plan for next stage of battle and ensure social stability, top Beijing official tells local governmentHong Kong and Macau Affairs Office director Xia Baolong says city still facing uphill battle against pandemic. At high-level meeting in Shenzhen, he calls on local administration to plan for next phase of crisis, with focus on ‘three reductions’, referring to infections, severe cases and deaths
Hong Kong’s government should distribute aid from the central government properly and plan for the next stage of the Covid-19 pandemic in an orderly way, a top Beijing official has told a high-level meeting in Shenzhen on the health crisis facing the financial hub. Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office (HKMAO) director Xia Baolong also emphasised the need for local officials to safeguard social stability, according to the Hong Kong China News Agency. He was chairing the meeting on Wednesday after flying back to Shenzhen from the capital where he attended the annual “two sessions” of the nation’s parliament and top advisory body.Lau Siu-kai, vice-president of semi-official Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies think tank, said Beijing believed reforms were needed after the pandemic was under control, such as improving the government’s managerial abilities and the leadership capabilities of the executive branch.It was the ninth meeting of the tripartite coordination task force, involving Hong Kong and mainland officials, and the second in less than a week, with the last one taking place on March 11.Xia said in the latest meeting that the current epidemic situation in the city was still serious and the fight against the virus has remained an uphill battle.
During the meeting, he also spoke via video link with teams sent to assist Hong Kong and called on the local government to speed up the distribution of Chinese medicine, boost the occupancy rate of isolation facilities and make good use of the medical professionals sent from the mainland.
Xia went on to instruct the local administration to plan ahead for the next phase of the outbreak, focusing on the strategy of “three reductions, three focuses and one priority”.The first element refers to reducing infections, severe cases and deaths. The second involves three specific areas of focus: boosting vaccinations among the elderly and enforcing closed-loop staffing arrangements in care homes; strengthening the work of clinics, hospitals and isolation facilities; and identifying high-risk premises for children, seniors and the disabled, and stepping up protections there.
Think tank vice-president Lau said Xia’s remarks not only focused on offering guidance and supervision, but also showed that Beijing would hold Hong Kong’s government accountable for failing to control the epidemic.
“There is a need for improvement of our health care system and formulating contingency plans within the government on how to deal with such kinds of crisis.”Central authorities would look at improving the local government’s managerial abilities and its executive role, Lau said, adding the city needed to “prepare well for any upcoming sixth or seventh waves”.
Lau suggested it was very rare that Beijing had to be so “hands-on” on Hong Kong’s issues, calling it proof that the city government’s poor handling of the outbreak had already greatly affected national interests.
#Covid-19#migrant#migration#chine#macau#hongkong#pekin#sante#zerocovid#politique#retsrictionsanitaire#shenzen#pandemie
Omicron: Hong Kong to shorten its 21-day quarantine requirement for incoming travellers | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3164934/omicron-hong-kong-shorten-its-21-day-quarantine
Omicron: Hong Kong to shorten its 21-day quarantine requirement for incoming travellers
Move comes after persistent complaints from travellers and companies paying high quarantine costs for employees. Hong Kong will shorten its 21-day quarantine requirement for incoming travellers given the much shorter incubation period of the Omicron variant, the Post has learned.A government source said Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor was expected to make the announcement at 5.30pm on Thursday.The move came after persistent complaints from travellers and companies paying high quarantine costs for employees.Currently, Hong Kong residents returning from 147 countries or places deemed high-risk are subject to 21 days of quarantine at designated hotels. Those arriving from 15 countries must isolate at the Penny’s Bay quarantine facility for four days before completing the rest of their quarantine at a hotel. Unvaccinated residents returning from medium-risk countries are also subject to the same.The isolation periods for vaccinated travellers from medium- and low-risk countries are 14 and seven days respectively. But currently nowhere overseas is deemed low-risk by the Hong Kong government.Hong Kong may set new record for daily confirmed coronavirus infections
27 Jan 2022. Last June when the pandemic situation had stabilised, the quarantine period for high-risk countries was cut to 14 days for travellers who could produce a positive antibody test. Flights from eight major countries, including Australia, Canada, France, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Britain and the United States have been banned since the start of the fifth wave of infections, to prevent more imported cases from slipping into the community. Earlier this month, Hong Kong cut the quarantine period of Covid-19 patients’ close contacts from the previous 21 days to 14, citing reasons of pressure on the city’s quarantine facilities and the shorter incubation period of people carrying the Omicron variant.
#Covid-19#migrant#migration#hongkong#sante#circulation#frontiere#omicronquarantaine#test#isolement#australie#canada#france#inde#pakistan#philippines#grandebretagne#etatsunis#casimporte
Shenzhen toughens quarantine rules for arrivals from Hong Kong, authorities lock down third building at Omicron-stricken Kwai Chung Estate | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3164610/hong-kong-lock-down-third-building-omicron
Shenzhen toughens quarantine rules for arrivals from Hong Kong, authorities lock down third building at Omicron-stricken Kwai Chung Estate
Health authorities in Hong Kong expand lockdown at public housing estate, with five-day order issued for Ha Kwai House
uThe mainland Chinese city of Shenzhen will impose stricter quarantine rules from Wednesday on travellers from Hong Kong, where a growing Omicron outbreak has prompted authorities to place a third block at a stricken public housing estate under lockdown.Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor on Tuesday pleaded for understanding from the 35,000 residents at Kwai Chung Estate in Kwai Tsing district, saying decisive action was needed to halt the outbreak, which had grown to 276 confirmed and preliminary-positive cases now spread across 12 of the 16 blocks.
As part of that effort, health authorities not only locked down a third block for five days of testing but also extended restrictions placed upon another tower by two more days, meaning residents will only be allowed to leave on Friday after having spent a full week confined almost entirely to their flats.
In announcing the change in the quarantine arrangements for Shenzhen, the city’s government said travellers arriving from Hong Kong would be required to spend 14 days isolated at designated facilities and another seven days at home for health observation, in addition to testing negative for Covid-19 within 24 hours of crossing the border.Previously, they would only need seven days of quarantine at designated facilities, seven days of home quarantine and seven days of health observation, in addition to the same testing requirement. Hong Kong recorded 124 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, the third day in a row in which the tally exceeded 100. Health authorities said 94 of the latest cases were local, while the remaining 30 were imported, including 21 crew members of a ship that arrived from India.
#Covid-19#migrant#migration#chine#hongkong#sante#frontiere#circulation#quarantaine#isolement#test#omicron
Sick with Covid-19, Hong Kong students in UK learn that ‘living with the virus’ means nobody cares, rules don’t matter | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3163537/sick-covid-19-hong-kong-students-uk-learn-living
Sick with Covid-19, Hong Kong students in UK learn that ‘living with the virus’ means nobody cares, rules don’t matter
Hong Kong student Kok Suen-tung was in a holiday state of mind when she felt unwell, tested herself and found out she had Covid-19 last month.
The final-year social policy student at the University of Bristol cancelled plans to visit friends in London and spent 10 days alone in her flat in the southwestern English city.Although the National Health Service (NHS) had a Volunteer Responders scheme with helpers to check in on isolated individuals and pick up groceries for those in need, Kok gave up trying to get through after multiple attempts.She received messages from the NHS every couple of days reminding her to avoid going out and meeting people, but it was practically impossible to avoid physical contact with others, as delivery drivers refused to leave her food at the door as requested.“They were probably concerned that the food would be stolen, so they made sure to hand it to me directly, even after I’d told them I had the virus,” she said.
Three Hong Kong students interviewed by the Post said they were shocked by the absence of contact tracing, the loose enforcement of isolation rules and how those who tested positive for the coronavirus were left on their own to stay home, without checks or medicine from the health authorities.
The UK broke its single-day record earlier this month with more than 200,000 cases and recorded nearly 100,000 infections on Friday, but its strategy of “living with the virus” seeks to avoid curbs on social activities, although masks and vaccination records are required in some venues. According to the NHS, a person with Covid-19 must self-isolate at home for 10 days, starting from the day symptoms first emerged or they tested positive. The isolation period can be cut to seven days if they test negative on days six and seven.Current rules also require those in contact with a Covid-19 patient to self-isolate for 10 days, but those fully vaccinated or unable to be vaccinated for medical reasons are exempted.In many ways, the UK approach to dealing with the pandemic is the polar opposite of Hong Kong’s strict zero-Covid strategy.When he had cold symptoms last November, Wong went to a walk-in test centre near where he lived. He found that he had Covid-19 and had to self-isolate.“I had support from my friends, but support from the government was virtually non-existent – it was like they’d given up,” he said.At his private accommodation in Durham, the staff did not wear masks and residents were left in the dark about Covid-19 cases in the building.The students said they wished the UK did more for those who fell ill.
Marco Sik Fong-ching, 23, an occupational therapy student at the University of Liverpool, found out he had Covid-19 last October and remained in his flat for 10 days.“It would’ve helped emotionally to know how and where I caught the virus – it would also be helpful to all in terms of curbing the spread,” he said. “The UK’s self-isolation policy is quite meaningless, as people with Covid-19 do leave home to get food.”NHS staff gave him no medication and advised him to take painkillers if he felt unwell.
Theresa Awolesi, 28, a medical student from London working at a hospital in Bristol, said: “The NHS has been underfunded for years, and staffing is a key issue. Not only is the turnover rate high, many of the staff are ill with Covid.”An average of around 45,000 health care staff were absent daily in the first week of 2022 for Covid-related reasons, according to official data.
Hong Kong migrants to UK struggle to adapt, many willing to accept lower pay and job changes“The government seems to think we are just going to push through and somehow come out on the other side,” she added.
Professor David Hui Shu-cheong of Chinese University, a member of the Hong Kong government’s pandemic advisory panel, said the situation in the UK reflected its decision to live with the virus.“Cases are only traced under a zero-Covid strategy, to identify and quarantine the patients’ close contacts. But when a place has decided to live with the virus, they won’t do that,” he said.Little was likely to change even with a surge of infections.“There’s nothing the patient can do, except to inform hospitals when they experience a shortness of breath, which could mean they have pneumonia,” he said.The three Hong Kong students who fell ill told the Post they recovered and were looking forward to returning home over the summer.
In Bristol, Kok said: “The virus is practically unavoidable here. The community has put in minimal effort to curb another outbreak, because it has been normalised – I don’t think they care.“I can go outside now and I will not see a single person wearing a mask.”
#Covid-19#migrant#migration#grandebretagne#hongkong#sante#etudiant#zercocovid#NHS#tracking#cascontact#quarantaine#vivreavecvirus
More quarantine hotel rooms needed for arriving domestic workers as manpower shortage could weaken Hong Kong’s economic recovery, labour chief says | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3161864/more-quarantine-hotel-rooms-needed-arriving
More quarantine hotel rooms needed for arriving domestic workers as manpower shortage could weaken Hong Kong’s economic recovery, labour chief says. Hong Kong should provide more hotel rooms for arriving domestic helpers to serve out their quarantine, the labour chief has said, warning the current manpower shortage could weaken the city’s economic recovery.Secretary for Labour and Welfare Law Chi-kwong on Sunday also revealed that the number of foreign domestic helpers had dropped from more than 400,000 two years ago to about 350,000 amid the Covid-19 pandemic – a decline which he said would have a wider effect on the city.
“The impact will not be limited to the relevant families or those people who required caretaking from domestic helpers,” Law wrote on his official blog.
“As some members will have to quit their jobs to take care of their families, the labour market and many industries in Hong Kong are set to be affected. If the situation continues, it may affect the city’s overall economic recovery.”
While no regulations limit the number of domestic workers entering the city, only three quarantine hotels have been designated to handle arriving helpers, creating an effective cap and leading to bidding wars for their services in some instances.With the Omicron variant spreading and more arrivals from various countries required to serve an initial four days of quarantine at the government’s Penny’s Bay facility on Lantau Island, the 1,000 slots originally designated for domestic helpers there will no longer be reserved for them from this month.Instead, arriving domestic workers and those who have not completed their isolation at Penny’s Bay will be moved to the new Regala Skycity Hotel, also on Lantau. It will provide 1,138 rooms in addition to the 1,000 offered by two other properties, the Rambler Garden Hotel and Courtyard by Marriott Hong Kong.Law expected the number of new helpers arriving in the city would not increase drastically in the short term, given most of the new slots provided by the Regala Skycity Hotel in January would be “offset” by those who were originally scheduled to go through their isolation in Penny’s Bay.“The Labour Department will continue to work closely with hotels that are suitable and interested in becoming designated quarantine facilities for foreign domestic helpers. I hope that good news will be announced in the short term,” Law said.
He added authorities would monitor the Covid-19 situation in the Philippines and Indonesia, where most of Hong Kong’s helpers came from.
Cheung Kit-man, chairman of the Hong Kong Employment Agencies Association, said more that 4,000 foreign domestic helpers were waiting to work in the city, with the delay for some longer than a year.“All hotel rooms are fully booked in the coming months,” Cheung said. “If an extra 1,000 quarantine rooms could be provided, I think we can clear the backlog within three to four months.”Cheung estimated that at least 10,000 employers had given up hiring a helper in the past year.But Betty Yung Ma Shan-yee, chairwoman of the Hong Kong Employers of Overseas Domestic Helpers’ Association, said the government should increase the capacity in a controlled manner to avoid community outbreaks of Covid-19.“The scheme should be more flexible – if more imported cases from the Philippines and Indonesia are recorded, the government should not increase the quota,” Yung said.
#Covid-19#migrant#migration#hongkong#travailleurmigrant#domestique#sante#quarantaine#care#philippines#quota#politiquemigratoire#indonesie#pandemie
Coronavirus: Britain, US top exporters of Omicron to Hong Kong so far, with cases expected to surge over Christmas holidays | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3160526/coronavirus-britain-us-top-exporters-omicron-hong
Coronavirus: Britain, US top exporters of Omicron to Hong Kong so far, with cases expected to surge over Christmas holidays
Published: 3:20pm, 21 Dec, 2021
About a quarter of Hong Kong’s imported Covid-19 Omicron infections so far have been arrivals from Britain, the most from any country, with the United States next in line, a Post review of recent cases has found amid a near-daily detection rate of the highly transmissive variant over the past week.As Omicron continued its global spread, a medical expert on Tuesday warned that a surge of such infections over the next week was all but certain, with residents coming back to the city for the holidays.
“As more residents return to Hong Kong from Britain and the United States, the city will see the number of imported infections increase substantially”, said Dr Ho Pak-leung, an infectious disease expert from the University of Hong Kong.He also criticised the government for waiting until Tuesday to add the United Kingdom to the new highest-risk category, just over a week after the country was found to be the source of two imported Omicron infections.“From the anti-pandemic perspective, it’s not ideal, and will increase the infection risks to Hong Kong,” he told a local radio programme.
Hong Kong on Tuesday confirmed eight new Covid-19 cases, including seven that carried N501Y, a key mutation linked to Omicron. Those infections took the city’s overall tally to 12,541, with 213 related deaths.
Separately, the government announced that all its employees would be required to present proof of Covid-19 vaccination when entering official buildings for work, taking effect in mid-February next year.Since the city’s first Omicron case was confirmed in late November, a total of 19 – all imported – have been recorded.
Five returned to the city from Britain, accounting for 26.3 per cent of all cases. The United States came in second, with four cases, while the rest were spread mostly among African countries including South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya.Since December 12, almost every day has included an Omicron infection among the Covid-19 caseload. On Friday, four of the seven cases involved the new variant, the most yet in a single day.Ho on Tuesday warned the city to brace for a surge in such cases as residents flocked home for Christmas from countries where Omicron had already become the dominant version of Covid-19.Britain was added to Hong Kong’s highest coronavirus risk category on Tuesday, meaning arrivals from that country must now spend the first portion of their mandatory quarantine at the government’s Penny’s Bay facility.
#Covid-19#migrant#migration#hongkong#grandebretagne#afriquedusud#kenya#nigeria#sante#omicron#frontiere#circulation#casimporte#variant
Green quarantine? Hong Kong hotels under pressure to recycle plastics thrown out by guests spending weeks in Covid-19 isolation | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3159356/green-quarantine-hong-kong-hotels-under-pressure
Green quarantine? Hong Kong hotels under pressure to recycle plastics thrown out by guests spending weeks in Covid-19 isolation. Experts caution against recycling items from rooms of quarantined guests, citing Covid-19 risk NGO Green Earth estimates hotels have used at least 100 million plastic items during pandemic
Hong Kong’s green groups are alarmed by the large amount of plastic tossed out by hotels where arrivals undergo compulsory quarantine during the Covid-19 pandemic.They want authorities, hotels and even quarantined guests themselves to cut the use of plastic water bottles, disposable utensils, tableware and toiletries, and try to do more to recycle.But some medical experts cautioned against sending items from quarantine hotel rooms into the community, citing the risk of spreading the coronavirus.
Green Earth, a charity that has focused on plastic waste since 2016, estimated that at least 100 million such items had been used at quarantine hotels since the pandemic began last year.Hahn Chu Hon-keung, a director of the group, said that assuming all 86,282 travellers quarantined so far had spent 14 days in a hotel, at least 120,000 water bottles and 13 million plastic items such as food containers and cutlery were used every month. Some in fact stayed 21 days.Chu, who underwent quarantine himself last month, said he emailed his hotel before arriving to ask it not to place bottled water in his room. He also requested reusable cutlery for his stay.
The Dorsett Tsuen Wan Hotel, where Chu stayed for 14 days, told the Post the amount of plastic items given to quarantine guests was so large that it had introduced reusable cutlery.It provided bottled water unless guests said they did not want it, and there were kettles for guests to use in their rooms.
The Amber Foundation, a charity which has collected unused hotel toiletries and airline kits for distribution to street sleepers, women in shelters and others, urged quarantined hotel guests to donate unused, sealed items.
How to use Hong Kong’s ‘Leave Home Safe’ app to enter mainland China and Macau quarantine free. Chairwoman Elizabeth Thomson said it used to repackage the donations into toiletry kits for men and women. Since the pandemic, these donations have surged.“We used to put together about 5,000 toiletry kits every year, but in the last month alone, we distributed more than 1,000 kits,” she said.Thomson said quarantined hotel guests could save unused items to recycle rather than leave them behind to be thrown away when they checked out.She said it would help if the Department of Health explained whether everything from the guests’ rooms had to be thrown out or if sealed toiletries such as liquid soap and shampoo could be given away.If there was nothing wrong with the items, the hotels could work with NGOs to recycle them and cut wastage, she added.
“If we try counting the number of plastic waste [items] in a quarantine hotel, it would be horrifying,” Thomson said.
#Covid-19#migrant#migration#sante#hongkong#sante#quarantaine#hotel#chine#macau#frontiere#circulation
Coronavirus: Hong Kong further tightens quarantine rules on arrivals from 8 African nations in fight against new ‘Omicron’ variant | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3157589/coronavirus-unvaccinated-hongkongers-could-find
Coronavirus: Hong Kong further tightens quarantine rules on arrivals from 8 African nations in fight against new ‘Omicron’ variant. City residents returning from South Africa, Botswana and six other nations must spend the first of three weeks of quarantine at a government facility
Hong Kong has further tightened quarantine rules for its residents arriving from eight African countries following the detection of a new, highly infectious coronavirus variant, requiring them to complete the first week of their mandatory confinement in a government facility. The Centre for Health Protection said on Saturday that Hong Kong residents arriving from South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Malawi, Namibia and Zimbabwe would immediately be sent to Penny’s Bay quarantine centre. The measure takes effect on Sunday.
#Covid-19#migrantt#migration#afriquedusud#hongkong#sante#variant#omicron#quarantaine#afrique#circulation#frontiere
Coronavirus: Hong Kong may restrict movements of quarantine-exempt aircrew in light of Cathay pilots’ infections | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3155516/hong-kong-axe-new-zealand-only-low-risk-covid-19
Coronavirus: Hong Kong may restrict movements of quarantine-exempt aircrew in light of Cathay pilots’ infections Health officials say they are worried about the infections of the two aircrew staff because they had high viral loads and were highly transmissive. But Cathay Pacific warns any tightening of cargo aircrew quarantine rules may force it to cut flights, not just harming airline but also choking city
Hong Kong authorities may restrict the movements of local aircrew who are exempt from quarantine on their return from overseas, after two cargo pilots tested positive for Covid-19 and triggered the isolation of 120 pupils linked to the family of one of them.
The infection of the two pilots, who were among five cases confirmed on Wednesday, sparked fears the city’s negotiations with mainland China on fully reopening the border would be delayed. But the aviation industry also hit back strongly on any potential tightening, with Cathay Pacific warning the move would disrupt the global supply chain.Local health officials expressed concern about the cases.“We are rather worried about the infections of these two aircrew members … as they had high viral load and were highly transmissive,” said Dr Albert Au Ka-wing, principal medical and health officer of the communicable disease branch at the Centre for Health Protection (CHP).Centre controller Dr Edwin Tsui Lok-kin warned the risk of community spread was “relatively high”.“We will work with Transport and Housing Bureau colleagues to further review if there is a possibility to consider further restricting the movements of exempted persons, [such as] aircrew, in Hong Kong,” he said, adding authorities would also look into “locations of isolation or quarantine”.Tsui said the government would try to strike a balance between public health needs and cargo and aviation operations.He conceded that if Hong Kong were to adopt a total closed-loop system in managing people exempted from quarantine, such as having specific transport to take arrivals back to their isolation place, much effort would be involved. Relevant government departments would need to look into the feasibility of such an approach.
Cathay Pacific said any tightening of cargo aircrew quarantine rules could force it to cut flights, not just harming the airline but also choking the city and affecting global supply chains.“Tightening the travel restrictions for aircrew operating cargo services would significantly impede our ability to continue to mount these important flights,” an airline spokeswoman said.
Aircrew would need to volunteer for closed-loop operations, flying for three weeks and living in airport hotels throughout, but Cathay already had a shortage of pilots and cabin crew volunteering to fly and spend considerable time in quarantine. Staff have expressed concerns about being separated from families for a long time.The bureau said it “attaches great importance to the concerned cases and will maintain close communications with the CHP and the airline”.Earlier in the day, health experts had called for tighter quarantine arrangements for aircrew to close any remaining avenues of coronavirus transmission in Hong Kong.
#Covid-19#migrant#migration#hongkong#chine#frontiere#circulation#sante##quarantaine#restrictionsanitaire
Coronavirus: Hong Kong adds 1,500 quarantine rooms ahead of Christmas holidays as 5 more hotels join approved list | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3152831/hong-kong-add-estimated-2000-quarantine-hotel
Coronavirus: Hong Kong adds 1,500 quarantine rooms ahead of Christmas holidays as 5 more hotels join approved list
Hong Kong officials have added five hotels to the government’s approved list of coronavirus quarantine facilities, ramping up room supply by 15 per cent ahead of an expected rush of inbound travellers over the Christmas holiday season.The administration revealed on Tuesday that a total of 40 designated quarantine hotels would provide about 11,500 rooms between December 1 and February 28, a period also covering Lunar New Year.
Hong Kong’s expansion of the quarantine facilities from the current level of 10,000 rooms emerged as the city confirmed two new coronavirus cases carrying the L452R mutant strain on Tuesday – both imported – taking the overall tally of infections to 12,301, with 213 related deaths.The two cases involved a 51-year-old man from the United Kingdom and a three-year-old from Mongolia. Fewer than 10 preliminary-positive infections were recorded. The 36 hotels currently approved to serve as quarantine hotels – a list that is updated every three months – were booked at 84 per cent capacity from September to November, according to the Food and Health Bureau. The net increase in the number of designated hotels for the coming round is four after it was previously announced that Sheraton Hong Kong Hotel and Towers in Tsim Sha Tsui would stop running quarantine services on November 9. Michael Li Hon-shing, executive director of the Federation of Hong Kong Hotel Owners, earlier on Tuesday predicted that the government would introduce another 2,000 quarantine rooms, as he said the industry was readying for a busy time in the coming months. He noted that while the government had typically chosen mid-range and budget hotels priced between HK$600 (US$77) and HK$800 per night, adding some five-star accommodation to the mix could help meet demand among returning travellers for a higher level of service and more comfortable rooms.“I think the demand for that is not that huge, but it must have its own market,” he said. “I believe the market for rooms priced at about HK$1,000 is larger.”Last month, the Hong Kong government sent letters to about 2,000 hotels and guesthouses holding relevant licences to encourage them to join the designated hotel scheme in a bid to meet customer demand, driven by residents returning to their home city.Li said hotels considering joining the scheme had to weigh their own strategies, including whether they preferred to focus on longer-term tenants or the burgeoning “staycation” market.“They may worry that future customers could be concerned that they had been a quarantine hotel before … But they may also hope to boost the occupancy rate by becoming a quarantine facility. It’s up to the hotels’ business strategy,” he said.
Hong Kong has imposed one of the world’s strictest policies for inbound travellers, requiring those from countries deemed high-risk – a list that includes Britain, the United States and Thailand – to complete up to three weeks of compulsory hotel quarantine.The limited supply of government-approved hotels had left thousands of travellers to the city scrambling to book rooms and rearrange flights in recent months. Meanwhile, foreign domestic helpers, who mainly come to the city from the Philippines or Indonesia, have just two options – the 409-room Silka Hotel Tsuen Wan or the government-run Penny’s Bay quarantine facility, which has 1,000 slots.
Every room at both properties was snapped up within minutes of becoming available, as employers and employment agencies rushed to reserve slots for their workers.According to government figures, the city had a total of 315 licensed hotel properties supplying 87,318 rooms as of August.
#Covid-19#migration#migrant#hongkong#sante#vaccination#quarantaine#hotel#frontiere#circulation
Coronavirus: China unlikely to accept voluntary cross-border health code, Hong Kong’s sole delegate to top legislative body says | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3152652/hong-kong-ramps-efforts-create-cross-border
Coronavirus: China unlikely to accept voluntary cross-border health code, Hong Kong’s sole delegate to top legislative body says The Hong Kong government has offered up a raft of new proposals aimed at easing Beijing’s concerns over its contact-tracing abilities and reopening the border for travellers. Hong Kong’s sole delegate to China’s top legislative body has warned that mainland authorities are unlikely to accept any Covid-19 health code-sharing proposal from the city for residents to cross the border without having to undergo quarantine, unless they submit contact-tracing information as a mandatory requirement.National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee member Tam Yiu-chung disagreed with Secretary for Innovation and Technology Alfred Sit Wing-hang, who dismissed suggestions that a voluntary system would be unacceptable to mainland authorities.Sit revealed on Sunday that the government had submitted several options in a bid to meet strict contact-tracing requirements on the mainland, including a new platform that would allow would-be travellers to voluntarily provide information beyond that contained in the city’s “Leave Home Safe” app.“On the mainland, if your mobile phone does not have a location-based system, you are required to buy a SIM card that does, and insert it into your phone so that you can be traced,” Tam said.
“When the mainland is so strict about contact tracing, and you come up with something that’s loose or reliant on self-responsibility, I’m afraid that they may not accept it and this will just drag on.”The veteran Beijing loyalist revealed just the day before that he had been barred from attending an NPC meeting in the capital by mainland health authorities citing the risk of infection posed by a single, untraceable coronavirus case found recently in Hong Kong.The restriction underscored the strict, zero-infection protocol insisted upon by mainland authorities for any border reopening – in addition to a health code-sharing arrangement to track Hongkongers’ movements on the other side.Hong Kong is keen to restore travel and trade links with the mainland that are vital to the city’s economic growth, but privacy concerns among many residents are preventing the city from joining the mainland’s health code system.Tam argued that it would be only logical for Hong Kong authorities and residents to accept the tried and tested system being enforced on the mainland side.“That’s the simplest way to do it … If you are concerned about privacy, you need to rethink your plans about crossing the border,” he said.No reopening of Hong Kong-mainland China border ‘before FebruaryTam was reacting to the technology minister Sit’s position when he listed out the options that the government had submitted to mainland authorities.“[The first option] would make users responsible for recording their own whereabouts … while the second option would be for the government to give them a list of places deemed high-risk over the past 14, 21 or 30 days, and let them check if they visited those locations,” Sit said in a television interview.A third option, he said, would be to allow travellers to transfer information already stored in their Leave Home Safe app to a proposed cross-border health code platform so they would not need to record their whereabouts separately.
But that option entailed a major disadvantage, Sit conceded, as the only locations stored by the app were for premises such as commercial buildings or restaurants that displayed a QR code.“Not all places have QR codes. People do not have QR codes at their homes, so this is just an assistive tool,” he said.Secretary for Innovation and Technology Alfred Sit on Sunday dismissed the suggestion that voluntary system would be rejected by mainland officials.Sit added: “It is not technically impossible to make our [system] the same as the mainland’s … But we need to consider what is most suitable for Hong Kong as we adjust our technology and policies. As long as [both sides] have reached a consensus and made a decision … we can then work together [to achieve the goal].”Pro-establishment lawmaker Ben Chan Han-pan said Sit’s comments suggested Hong Kong officials still did not understand the mainland’s expectations.Respiratory medicine expert Dr Leung Chi-chiu offered cautious praise for the proposed health code-sharing app while noting that the mainland did not have to rely on voluntary declarations to trace people’s movements.“The first two [app] options would work for specific groups of visitors, while the third option would be effective in tracking people’s whereabouts in Hong Kong when you are allowing a large number of them to cross the border,” he said.
“But on the mainland, while authorities also ask residents to scan QR codes at places they visit, positioning data on their mobile phones can also be used when needed.”
Infectious disease specialist Dr Joseph Tsang Kay-yan said it was time for Hong Kong authorities to accept the realities of the mainland’s strict contact-tracing regime.“It’s just like a relationship; when one side is saying that you have to be a homeowner in the city, you can’t really say ‘I’m already renting a village house’,” he said.“If someone wants to travel to a place outside Hong Kong, he must accept the regulations there, rather than challenging them.”Stanley Ng Chau-pei, president of the pro-establishment Federation of Trade Unions, said Hong Kong would have to connect with the mainland’s health code system.The city confirmed three new imported coronavirus cases on Sunday that took its infection tally to 12,294, with 213 related deaths
#Covid-19#migrant#migration#chine#hongkong#circulation#frontiere#QRcode#controlepolitique#sante
Coronavirus: Hong Kong airport worker tests preliminary-positive, threatening city’s 50-day streak of no local infections | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3151495/coronavirus-hong-kong-airport-worker-tests
Coronavirus: Hong Kong airport worker tests preliminary-positive, threatening city’s 50-day streak of no local infections
The man, vaccinated and regularly tested as part of his job, would be the first local case since another airport employee tested positive in AugustCity also confirms eight new imported cases, while elder care sector representative touts positive response to new jabs scheme
A Hong Kong airport worker has tested preliminary-positive for Covid-19, potentially ending the city’s 50-day streak of zero local infections.The development emerged as an industry insider on Thursday said the government’s new pilot scheme to ramp up vaccination rates among residents of care homes for the elderly was receiving a positive response.
Local health authorities also confirmed eight new imported cases involving arrivals from Pakistan, Nepal and the Philippines.
A more worrying situation centred on Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals Limited, confirming an earlier Post report that health officials were investigating one of its employees, who tested positive for the coronavirus in the morning.The 48-year-old man, who works as an airport cargo handler, had undergone weekly Covid-19 testing as part of his job requirements. He had tested negative on September 29 but a sample he submitted on Wednesday was found to be preliminarily-positive for the L452R mutant strain, the Centre for Health Protection said.He tested negative for the N501Y and E484K strains.The asymptomatic patient had no recent travel history and mainly worked at SuperTerminal 1, which handles air cargo. The man, who last worked on Thursday, was vaccinated on June 25 and July 28.In a related development, the authorities locked down Golden Glory Court, where the airport worker lives, in Sha Tin’s Golden Lion Garden at 7pm for compulsory testing of residents. The operation was expected to finish at about 6am on Friday. Hong Kong has gone 50 days without a confirmed local infection – since a 47-year-old airport lounge worker tested positive for Covid-19 in August. In that case, some experts suggested the woman might have been infected by transit passengers rather than in the community.Respiratory medicine specialist Dr Leung Chi-chiu said it was no coincidence that the last few local cases, including the lounge worker and another staff member at the cargo company, came from areas in contact with the outside world.“The airport has always been the highest-risk area due to the amount of international cargo and passengers that go through it every day,” he said.Leung said authorities should not drop their guard and keep testing airport workers twice a week, “especially if they are vaccinated”, as being inoculated would reduce symptoms and make infections harder to detect without regular screening.
#Covid-19#migrant#migration#hongkong#sante#casimporte#vaccination#circulation#frontiere#transit
Coronavirus: Hong Kong-mainland China border unlikely to reopen before February, government adviser says | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3151036/coronavirus-hong-kong-mainland-china-border
Coronavirus: Hong Kong-mainland China border unlikely to reopen before February, government adviser says. Negotiations on reviving travel could stretch on for four to five months, according to government adviser’s estimate. Government steps up work on developing a health code for residents that must meet Beijing’s conditions for allowing quarantine-free travel. Reopening Hong Kong’s border with mainland China will take at least four to five months of negotiations, according to a Covid-19 adviser to the local government, which is also stepping up work on developing a health code for residents that must meet Beijing’s conditions for allowing quarantine-free travel.Professor David Hui Shu-cheong said the mainland border could only reopen to Hongkongers alongside the introduction of a health code app, adding the Innovation and Technology Bureau (ITB) was looking at requiring users to share their vaccination records and 21-day travel history.“The ITB is developing a cross-border code which needs to hold records of negative Covid tests and vaccinations, and state that the [user] is not a close contact of any confirmed case,” Hui said. The groundwork for the app, which was initially based on Covid-19 screening results, was completed last year but Hong Kong’s fourth wave of coronavirus infections ended the prospect of the border reopening and the scheme was never implemented. The inability to track Hongkongers’ movements and contact-trace any infection when they cross the border has long been a major obstacle to allowing quarantine-free travel, as the city’s health code is not linked to the mainland’s because of privacy concerns.
Secretary for Innovation and Technology Alfred Sit Wing-hang confirmed that in preparation for the border reopening his bureau would look at how to refine the app. “We will conduct a full review to ensure more effective epidemic controls,” he said.But he did not answer any questions on whether the review would look at requiring residents to share their data with mainland authorities.Government adviser Hui, however, said that mainland authorities wanted the phone numbers required for signing up for the app to be registered under users’ real names.
Earlier, Hui said in a television interview that his estimate for how long the border negotiations would take was based on Macau’s experience of reviving travel with the mainland.Hui, a respiratory medicine expert from Chinese University, said that authorities across the border would issue Hong Kong an action list for improving its current system of coronavirus controls, with mainland health experts likely to be sent to the city to inspect progress. “As long as we can prevent the coronavirus from entering the city from abroad, ensure there is no spread of the virus within the city and step up safety controls to the same level as China’s, then I believe we will be able to reopen the border,” he said. The government adviser added he expected a second meeting between health officials and experts from both sides after talks opened on September 26. As part of the initial discussions, Hong Kong has been asked to strengthen its epidemic controls through measures such as tightening quarantine exemption rules, as well as sharing data with the mainland.Hui added the city would also have to tighten its rules on discharging Covid-19 patients from hospital.In Hong Kong, coronavirus patients can be released if their cycle threshold (CT) value is above 33, suggesting they have a very low viral level. But that system is not used on the mainland, where patients can only be discharged after twice testing negative for the virus.“In Hong Kong’s case, we have seen that if the CT value is above 33, the body is essentially producing dead viruses and we haven’t seen any transmission from such patients,” Hui said. “But China says this standard is not recognised by the World Health Organization and does not have enough basis.”
#Covid-19#migrant#migration#chine#hongkong#sante#circulation#frontiere#quarantaine#variant#test
Coronavirus: Beijing tells Hong Kong to strengthen quarantine, testing policies to secure border reopening | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3150331/coronavirus-beijing-tells-hong-kong-strengthen
Coronavirus: Beijing tells Hong Kong to strengthen quarantine, testing policies to secure border reopening.
Hong Kong must strengthen coronavirus controls in areas such as testing and quarantine before the border with mainland China can reopen, the city’s deputy leader has said after meeting Beijing officials. Chief Secretary John Lee Ka-chiu said on Monday that both sides were positive about the prospect of reviving cross-border travel during “constructive” talks in Shenzhen over the weekend. He identified three areas of improvement in Hong Kong’s anti-pandemic strategy to pave the way for further discussions, covering screening requirements for inbound travellers, the quarantine system and the city’s overall approach to risk. But Lee said the mainland officials had not set any preconditions for relaxing travel restrictions, which Hong Kong authorities have made a priority for boosting the economy. More than 20 representatives from the mainland and Hong Kong attended Sunday’s meeting, hosted by Huang Liuquan, a deputy director of the State Council’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office. “The mainland experts understand that Hong Kong has its own [anti-pandemic] measures, and they acknowledge that Hong Kong has yielded a certain result,” Lee told the press.Hopes in Hong Kong for border reopening, but ‘it’s unlikely before March’ “Our focus is to build a strong foundation to increase the mainland’s confidence in Hong Kong, and understand that Hong Kong will not bring extra health and safety risks to other places.”
Lee did not directly answer questions on whether a date for a border reopening had been set, or if that could be achieved by the end of the year.
“The process takes time, but I believe that the border could reopen in a gradual manner, as both sides demonstrated a positive attitude,” he said. “We will be proactive and push it forward as fast as we can.” He added local officials would submit a report on the meeting to Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and strive to hold a second meeting with the mainland “as soon as possible”. Those in attendance included representatives from the central government’s liaison office in Hong Kong, and the Guangdong and Shenzhen administrations, as well as Secretary for Food and Health Professor Sophia Chan Siu-chee and Secretary for Innovation and Technology Alfred Sit Wing-hang. After the meeting, a source told the Post that “some things are missing” from the Hong Kong approach, adding that lessons would be learned from Macau’s experiences.
Macau had over the past year largely brought the coronavirus under control, but recently recorded a spike in local cases, as have parts of the mainland.
Hong Kong last confirmed a local Covid-19 case with an unknown source of infection on August 17, involving a 47-year-old airport worker. Health officials believe she probably contracted the virus at the transport hub rather than in the community. The city’s border controls are some of the world’s toughest, with inbound travellers required to quarantine for up to 21 days at designated hotels and undergo mandatory testing both during and after isolation.Hongkongers on the mainland and in Macau can return to the city without serving quarantine under the “Return2HK scheme” if they test negative for Covid-19. A “Come2HK scheme” allows non-Hong Kong residents in Guangdong province and Macau – including mainlanders and expatriates – to travel to the city without quarantining. But the arrangements are not reciprocal at this stage.Macau resumed quarantine-free travel with the neighbouring mainland city of Zhuhai in May last year, following the mutual recognition of a risk-based health code system that takes into account an individual’s condition, contact with Covid-19 patients and travel history.Carrie Lam lobbies Beijing for border reopening, seeks medical expert dialogueTravellers must also provide a negative coronavirus test taken no more than seven days before departure. Respiratory medicine expert Dr Leung Chi-chiu noted a recent uptick of imported infections in Hong Kong and urged the government to further tighten restrictions on travellers. He added a new strategy should be developed on eliminating cases within a month of an outbreak.“Hong Kong has no concrete plan on how to quickly cut off the spread of Covid-19 if there’s a community case. The strategy of simply tightening social-distancing measures and quarantining close contacts is outdated in the wake of more infectious variants,” he said.Leung acknowledged that locking down entire districts for mandatory testing would be difficult in Hong Kong but suggested ramping up regular screening instead – particularly for staff in high-risk places such as the airport and quarantine hotels – to two times per week.That should also apply to those who were fully vaccinated, to snuff out the contagion risks posed by asymptomatic carriers, he added.
#Covid-19#migrant#migration#chine#hongkong#macau#circulation#frontiere#sante#test#vaccination#variant#reciprocite
Coronavirus Hong Kong: 800 quarantine rooms for domestic helpers gone within minutes of becoming available | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3148646/hong-kong-coronavirus-800-quarantine-rooms
A Hong Kong quarantine facility offering 800 places for the swelling number of foreign domestic workers headed back to the city was fully booked within minutes of its online reservation system opening on Tuesday morning.Users were allowed to start waiting 45 minutes before the bookings opened for the spots dedicated to inbound workers – mainly arrivals from the Philippines and Indonesia – at the government’s Penny’s Bay quarantine facility.
Separately, the city’s “Come2HK” scheme, a quarantine-free travel arrangement for non-Hong Kong residents arriving from Guangdong and Macau, is slated to start on Wednesday. The scheme’s designated online booking system, offering 2,000 slots a day, will open every Wednesday for the next 2½ weeks, with reservations offered on a first come, first served basis.Also from Wednesday, arrivals to the city holding Covid-19 vaccination records issued outside Hong Kong will be able to receive a QR code showing proof of inoculation for local use, such as when entering certain bars and restaurants. Inbound air travellers will be issued the QR code along with their compulsory quarantine order, with the arrangement set to be extended to land arrivals from September 28.New arrivals who are already in Hong Kong can apply for the codes online or at designated post offices. The QR codes, which allow users to present their vaccination record in an electronic format, can be stored on the government’s “Leave Home Safe” app.
Under the revised rule, participants in groups of no more than four will no longer need to stay at least 1.5 metres apart, as long as all staff are vaccinated and everyone is masked. Trainers, however, will need to remain in a fixed location at least 1.5 metres from anyone else.The rush on the Penny’s Bay booking system, which was offering reservations beginning on September 20, began at 9am, with online queues forming even earlier. By 9.30am, a Post reporter was unable to access the system at all.“The centre only accepts bookings until October 19 and was fully booked within five minutes,” said Cheung Kit-man, chairman of Hong Kong Employment Agencies Association. He estimated that about 300 employers were unable to book a slot and would have to try again when more became available.
For those unable to secure accommodation in the latest round, bookings will open on September 17 at 9am for reservations starting on October 20, according to a government update.
“It’s first come, first served. The faster you move, the higher your chances of securing a room,” Chan said. “If you spent even just two minutes longer to double-check the passport details of the domestic helper, you would’ve been too late to book a slot.”The speed at which bookings filled up has frustrated some families in urgent need of help. A first-time mother, who gave her name as Mrs Li, was reduced to tears after failing to book a quarantine room on Tuesday.Li had hired a helper from the Philippines in January this year to care for her newborn son, but ran into delays with flight suspensions and vaccine documentation.The secondary school teacher said the system returned an error message after her application was submitted, compounding her frustration.“I was in tears when I realised the application couldn’t go through quickly enough,” she said, adding the stress of the whole process had worsened her postpartum depression.Li said neither she nor her husband could afford to take more time off work. She was willing to pay more for a helper, “but there are simply no more domestic helpers left in Hong Kong that I could find to hire”. Foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong are paid a minimum wage of HK$4,630 (US$595) per month.Secretary for Labour and Welfare Law Chi-kwong on Saturday said about 50 quarantine rooms at the facility would be released on a daily basis, estimating that all slots would be filled within 16 days.Even after a reservation has been successfully submitted online, the application does not necessarily guarantee the room, according to a notice on the system.
The Labour Department must then process the applications to verify the travel documents and vaccination record of the helper.The entire process can take up to three to four days, with a phone call from the department to confirm the reservation. A 21-day quarantine stay at the government-run facility, including three meals per day, costs HK$10,080 (US$1,295).But as the facility does not have Wi-fi, helpers have been told to bring their own mobile phone and charger, along with a functioning SIM card, so they can communicate with health authorities.The government announced on Friday that the Lantau Island facility would begin operating as quarantine accommodation for fully vaccinated foreign domestic workers following complaints that the more expensive 409-room Silka Tsuen Wan hotel had been fully booked. Bookings at the Silka, which charges HK$800 per night, were all snapped up within 24 hours of its reservation system opening. Before Tuesday, it was the sole quarantine option for incoming workers after the government’s decision to begin recognising vaccination records from the Philippines and Indonesia.
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