Govt Urged To Make Stay-home Orders Decisively

An infectious disease specialist on Thursday called on the government to act "decisively" and order people to stay home for two weeks if there is a coronavirus outbreak in the buildings they live in.

But Dr Joseph Tsang of the Medical Association also said authorities must state clear the prerequisite for such orders.

He made the remarks after the government ordered people to undergo mandatory Covid-19 tests if they have spent more than two hours, between November 17 and December 9, in any of three residential buildings with cluster outbreaks.

The buildings are Block 8 of Kwai Shing West Estate in Kwai Chung, Kam Wai House of Kam Fung Court in Ma On Shan and Block 6 of Richland Gardens in Kowloon Bay.

Speaking on an RTHK programme, Tsang said a 14-day home confinement should go along with the compulsory tests, adding that officials should also clearly tell the public the triggering point for such orders, such as the number of confirmed cases in a building.

“You need to tell the public early, so they can prepare,” he said.

Tsang said the same goes with Chief Executive Carrie Lam's earlier announcement that her administration would be prepared to seal off an area and issue compulsory testing orders for people in outbreak zones.

“ When such things happen, are you decisive in carrying out what you said earlier? And if not, you should tell the public when you would implement such measures,” he said.

“You know the virus won’t wait for you, it will continue to spread in the community.”

A former political assistant to the Food and Health Bureau, Yan Chan, said the government should have restricted people from leaving their buildings once a cluster of cases was confirmed.

“Why when it was the best timing, when you discovered there was an outbreak in Kwai Shing West Estate, you didn’t do it,” she said during the same programme.

Chan proposed a city-wide lockdown for two weeks, and universal tests, to cut the chains of transmission.

“Many people take time off during this period for a long vacation, right?” she said. “[I hope] everyone can be patient and stay at home after their test results are fine.”