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Friday, May 07, 2021, 16:04
HK logs 3 cases, eases quarantine for those fully vaccinated
By Wang Zhan
Friday, May 07, 2021, 16:04 By Wang Zhan

Pedestrians walk on a Kowloon promenade next to Victoria Harbour that provides views of the city skyline in Hong Kong on May 3, 2021. (ANTHONY WALLACE / AFP)

HONG KONG - Hong Kong will ease quarantine for fully vaccinated inbound travelers and residents who are close contacts of people infected with COVID-19 as the financial hub reported three new coronavirus cases Friday. 

Fully vaccinated people coming from a handful of low-risk countries including Australia, New Zealand and Singapore will have their mandatory hotel quarantine shortened from 14 to seven days, health authorities said at a briefing on Friday. They will be required to self-monitor for an additional week. The changes, which were announced earlier, will take effect on May 12.

Fully vaccinated people coming from a handful of low-risk countries including Australia, New Zealand and Singapore will have their mandatory hotel quarantine shortened from 14 to seven days, health authorities said at a briefing on Friday

Inoculated people from high and medium risk origins will have their stays reduced from 21 days to two weeks plus an additional seven days of self-monitoring. Those coming from extremely high-risk areas will still need to quarantine for three weeks, even if they have received their shots.

Inbound visitors from the mainland, Macao or Taiwan, except those under the "Return2hk" program, will undergo seven-day quarantine plus self-monitoring for seven days.

READ MORE: HK health authorities trace origin of cases, 1m get vaccine

The quarantine will also be shortened from 14 days at government facilities to seven days at home for fully vaccinated residents found to be close contacts of people with COVID-19. When the close cases involve new, more dangerous variants, fully vaccinated people will still need to stay in a government quarantine center for 14 days - down from the existing 21 days - followed by a week at home.

Health authorities have in recent weeks evacuated all residents of buildings where patients of mutated strains lived and sent them to government facilities for a 21-day quarantine. According to the new rules, affected residents will only need to do 21 days of self-monitoring given that they test negative for the virus. They need to be tested another four times during the self-monitoring period.

The loosening is “an important step for us to reopen our economy,” Food and Health Secretary Sophia Chan Siu-chee said.

So far about 14 percent of the 7.5-million population has received at least one dose while more than 600,000 people have received two doses.

ALSO READ: Chai Wan building cordoned off after COVID-19 variant found

Steps to incentivize vaccination include reopening bars and nightclubs only to inoculated people and allowing them to gather in larger groups at restaurants. A travel bubble with Singapore set for end of the month will also allow only vaccinated people.

3 new cases

One untraceable local case was among the three new COVID-19 cases reported on Friday.

The unlinked case involved a 29-year-old man who works for a laboratory of BGI Group, one of the enlisted COVID-19 testing agencies in the city, Albert Au, principal medical and health officer of the Centre for Health Protection’s communicable disease branch, said at another briefing.

The unlinked case reported on Friday involved a 29-year-old man who works for a laboratory of BGI Group, one of the enlisted COVID-19 testing agencies in the city

The man last went to his workplace at Tai Po Industrial Estate on Wednesday and mostly lived there in the past month. His result came back negative at a regular test on Sunday.

He received his second BioNTech vaccine shot on April 10. Over the past two weeks, he visited at least six community testing centers operated by BGI across the city, according to Au.

The other local case on Friday belongs to a cluster of patients infected by mutated strains. The cluster now has involved eight patients.

The new patient is a 67-year-old housewife living at Hing Wah (II) Fung Hing House in Chai Wan. She is the mother of a previously confirmed 31-year-old Filipino woman, whose boyfriend – a 29-year-old man flying from Dubai in March – was the city’s first mutation case that entered the community.

In addition to the eight mutation cases, the city also discovered other three cases in the community, but those were likely to be imported, according to Au.

The last case on Friday was imported and involved a 22-year-old domestic helper flying from Indonesia on April 4. She tested negative three times before completing three weeks of hotel quarantine and returning to a family of five in Tai Po.

Her infection was identified on May 5 by the ongoing mandatory testing targeting the 370,000 helpers in Hong Kong.

Health chief Sophia Chan said the authorities have ascertained transmission chains of the N501Y cases and there has been no mass outbreak in communities, adding that vaccination is one of the most effective anti-epidemic measures and called on residents to get vaccinated.

The city's overall infection tally stood at 11,801, with 210 related fatalities.

With inputs from Agencies

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