'Send Returnees To Hotels, Not Home Quarantine'

A public health expert has urged the government to tell people returning to Hong Kong from overseas to spend their mandatory 14-day quarantine period in hotel rooms, rather than at home.

Speaking on Thursday, the day compulsory home quarantine took effect for everyone arriving in the SAR from abroad, Dr Leung Chi-chiu warned that allowing people to stay home would put their family members at risk of coronavirus.

He said home quarantine was particularly unsuitable in Hong Kong because many flats are small and many households include elderly people, who are most vulnerable to Covid-19.

"At this stage, we do not have sufficient quarantine facilities that can accommodate tens of thousands of returnees from other countries, and the only way is to make use of those hotels," he said.

Leung said many hotels were already struggling and were in danger of going out of business due to a slump in visitor arrivals. However he said there were reports of hotels turning away customers who needed to be put into quarantine.

He suggested they could be given help with disinfection and make special arrangements for people needing home quarantine.

"Many of them are vacant and will be vacant in the coming months," Leung said.

"Some of the local hotels are already providing such services. If we can extend the service to more hotels and make loans to these returnees so they can make prior arrangements at their own expense, it will help them to protect their families and the whole community."