Arrivals To Be Quarantined At Designated Hotels

People who fly into Hong Kong will have their specimens collected upon arrival and taken to designated hotels for quarantine as part of stepped-up restrictions by the government to prevent imported coronavirus cases during the upcoming Christmas holiday.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam said on Tuesday that medical staff would be stationed at the airport to collect specimens from inbound travellers for Covid-19 tests. Currently, deep throat saliva tests are used.

She said arrivals will then be taken to designated hotels by designated transport for a 14-day quarantine.

The measures will be implemented before Christmas, but no specific dates were announced.

Lam thanked the hotel industry for their enthusiastic response to be used for quarantine purposes, saying some 10,000 rooms at 30 to 40 hotels are ready to be used. She said hotel rooms in different price ranges will be available for inbound travellers to choose from.

She said the names of the designated hotels will be announced soon after officials carry out final checks on the venues.

The chief executive added that as the incubation period of some Covid-19 patients is longer than 14 days, travellers will be asked to get tested one more time – five days after they finish their quarantine.

Still, she admitted the new measures may not be foolproof.

"We will stay very vigilant. We will adjust our strategy. We will introduce and adopt more stringent measures in order to contain the spread of the virus into society and give rise to all sorts of economic and social difficulties," she said.

"The strategy has to start from preventing any imported cases because if we could not prevent the importation of cases, we will continue to be in a very difficult cycle of dealing with the outbreak.

"But according to the scientists, the incubation period is not absolute. While we say 14 days is the normal period, so if we could isolate and quarantine every arrival for a period of 14 days, that would be good enough. But still, there will be cases that could have been missed because for certain individuals, the incubation period might be longer."