Positive Arrivals Can Stay In Hotel Rooms In November

The government announced on Tuesday that inbound travelers confirmed to have Covid-19 in their quarantine hotels can stay put starting from November.

Currently, they are moved to community isolation facilities in Penny's Bay or Kai Tak after testing positive.

In a statement, a spokesman stressed that hotels will have to strengthen their control measures in the next round of the quarantine hotel scheme.

That includes arranging specific floors or rooms to isolate Covid patients in, installing more air purifiers, and requiring staff to don appropriate personal protective gear.

“The arrangement will save confirmed cases from traveling and enable better utilisation of manpower and vehicles originally deployed for transporting confirmed cases, while reducing the transmission risk during the transportation process,” the spokesman said.

The government will discuss implementation details with the industry.

Meanwhile, one more hotel is joining the current round of the quarantine scheme, while another is providing extra rooms. That's after four hotels quit the scheme at the end of August.

The spokesman said 62 hotels are currently offering some 23,600 quarantine rooms.