'Shorter Quarantine Won't Lead To Rise In Infections'

Health Secretary Lo Chung-mau on Tuesday said cutting the quarantine period for overseas arrivals will not lead to an increase in Covid-19 cases in Hong Kong.

From Friday, people flying into Hong Kong will have to spend three nights in hotel quarantine, instead of the current seven.

After three nights at a designated quarantine hotel, travellers can go home or elsewhere, where they will be required to undergo medical surveillance for four more days.

Speaking on an RTHK programme, the health chief said the new rule will minimise infection risks, as statistics show that less than one percent of travellers tested positive for Covid-19 after three days of quarantine.

"The virus transmission in our community currently is already much higher than having coronavirus cases among the travellers with our 3+4 arrangement," he said.

He said that the introduction of an "amber code" in the LeaveHomeSafe app further prevents the spread of coronavirus as new arrivals will be banned from visiting high-risk places such as restaurants during the medical surveillance period.

Lo added that they will need to do repeated PCR tests in order to detect any infections early.

Asked if hotel quarantine will be scrapped altogether, the health chief said he could not make any promises at this point as the global epidemic situation remains unpredictable.