65 Stranded Residents Return To HK From Peru

Dozens of Hong Kong residents who had been stranded in Peru touched down in the SAR on Sunday afternoon after a marathon journey.

Local authorities, with help from the Foreign Ministry, and the Chinese Embassy in Peru, arranged a chartered flight to bring 65 passengers from Lima to London, before they switched to a commercial airline for the rest of the journey back to Hong Kong.

Even before the government-chartered flight took off at 5am on Saturday Hong Kong time, many had to make the journey to Lima from other places in the South American country first.

Passengers had to pay HK$30,000 for the flight from Lima, and had to foot the cost of an additional ticket from London.

All were taken for mandatory testing at the AsiaWorld Expo in Lantau, and health officials say none of them will be able to leave until all the test results are in.

That’s because if anyone tests positive for Covid-19, all their close contacts would have to be sent to a quarantine camp, while the rest who test negative would be allowed to return home to self-isolate for 14 days.

Peru is observing a country-wide lockdown, with no commercial air traffic allowed for at least another two weeks.

The Immigration Department had received 98 calls for help from people in Peru. Besides the 65 who have returned, another 13 made their own arrangements to leave the country, while the rest remain under quarantine in Peru, or decided not to take the chartered flight.