Care Home Staff Not Forced To Leave Families: Govt

Labour minister Law Chi-kwong said on Thursday that it is not mandatory for care home staff to live away from their families in order to be allowed to go to work.

The government on Wednesday announced a so-called closed-loop system under which carers will sleep in hotels and take designated transport to their places of work.

But Law said he understands that some workers also need to care for their own families and so the government only "strongly requests" that they join the new system.

The minister was asked on an RTHK programme how useful it will be if only some care home workers take part, and not all of them.

"It's a question of risk management - the lower the risk the better. It's like wearing masks. You won't completely eliminate the chance of infection, right?" Law replied.

"For example, if 99 percent of workers are in [the closed-loop], it's not risk-free, but it's greatly reduced."

The secretary said the arrangement is first being adopted in around 80 care homes that have managed to remain Covid-free so far.

He said besides hotels, some carers will be asked to live in temporary container houses near their places of work, or vacant areas of the care homes.

Law also said dozens of mainland carers have started working in Hong Kong, to help ease staff shortages caused by the Covid outbreak.

The new recruits are on three-month contracts worth around HK$31,000 a month.

The minister said the recruitment exercise hasn't been easy as the pay isn't really that attractive.

He added that since more people became aware of the recruitment drive, around three thousand locals have also expressed an interest and officials are signing them up and giving them training.