Over 70 percent of the 32 imported novel coronavirus infections in Hong Kong developed symptoms before or on the date of arrival despite health declarations being required for all international travelers since March 8 and progressively tighter border controls, according to an estimate made by China Daily on Monday.
Medical experts in the city called for even tougher border controls — to quarantine all arrivals and to ban arrivals from countries or regions for which the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government has issued the Red Outbound Travel Alert.
Amid a pandemic, the situation globally could rapidly worsen in the next two to four weeks, due to unclear quarantine and medical conditions in some countries, and the highly dense populations of developed countries
Yuen Kwok-yung, Hong Kong’s leading microbiologist
On Monday alone, the city recorded nine new confirmed cases — all linked to overseas travel to Europe, Africa, North America and Japan. The tally now stands at 157.
Health authorities warned of a second wave of novel coronavirus outbreak locally — noting that the increased number of imported cases has increased the risk of a community outbreak.
Since March 2, Hong Kong has recorded 58 new cases, an increase of 58 percent — of which 40 cases were imported ones or from close contacts of imported cases.
Hong Kong’s leading microbiologist, Yuen Kwok-yung, who is on the SAR government’s four-expert advisory panel, said on Monday he had suggested the administration request all international travelers to Hong Kong, regardless of where they come from, to self confine for 14 days.
Yuen stressed that amid a pandemic, the situation globally could rapidly worsen in the next two to four weeks, due to unclear quarantine and medical conditions in some countries, and the highly dense populations of developed countries.
Hong Kong is on the verge of a significant local outbreak after a surging number of imported cases, he warned.
Ho Pak-leung, head of the Centre for Infection at the University of Hong Kong, advised the government to home-quarantine all overseas arrivals. It should also ban arrivals from countries or regions under Hong Kong’s Red Outbound Travel Alert, to replace the present policy of having them quarantined, Ho suggested.
Despite Hong Kong requesting all arrivals at the airport to declare their health conditions since March 8, Ho said some travelers didn’t show any symptoms when they arrived. But he is concerned that they might have caused undetected transmissions of the virus into the community.
The head of the communicable disease branch of the Centre for Health Protection of the Department of Health, Chuang Shuk-kwan, told a press briefing that the existing health declaration policy was limited when it came to identifying patients without symptoms upon arrival.
As of today, people landing in Hong Kong who have been to the Schengen Area in Europe or to South Korea, except Daegu and Gyeongsangbuk-do, in the past 14 days will be subject to a compulsory home- quarantine for 14 days.
Starting from Thursday, the same arrangements will apply to arrivals from Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Cathay Pacific has arranged extra flights to help people returning from the UK and the US.
More Hong Kong residents or Chinese passport holders living in these areas are expected to fly back to the city or in transit to the mainland through Hong Kong in the next few days before the tighter border controls are introduced. This will put the city’s already-strained quarantine facilities under even greater pressure.
The Macao government on Monday announced that as of today, all arrivals must be put under quarantine, either at home or in designated quarantine centers, except for those who visited the mainland, Hong Kong or Taiwan in the past 14 days.
Early Monday morning, Macao recorded an imported case from Portugal — the city’s first new case in 40 days.
