2024 RT Amination Banner.gif

China Daily

News> Hong Kong> Content
Published: 18:52, January 30, 2023 | Updated: 18:53, January 30, 2023
Hong Kong ends COVID isolation orders from Monday
By William Xu
Published:18:52, January 30, 2023 Updated:18:53, January 30, 2023 By William Xu

Pedestrians cross the road in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong on Dec 29, 2022. (EDMOND TANG / CHINA DAILY)

COVID-19 patients in Hong Kong will no longer be required to stay in quarantine beginning Monday as Hong Kong made another stride toward normalcy by stopping the issuing of isolation orders to COVID-19 patients and the city’s clinics resumed normal service.

Confirmed COVID patients with no symptoms are allowed to move freely and go to work. However, students who test positive should not return to classes until they can present a negative self-test result.

Patients who had been staying in isolation facilities can leave from Monday without obtaining a negative self-test result. Confirmed patients who wish to continue to stay in the quarantine centers or in quarantine can stay there for up to seven days

Patients who had been staying in isolation facilities can leave from Monday without obtaining a negative self-test result. Confirmed patients who wish to continue to stay in the quarantine centers or in quarantine can stay there for up to seven days.

Nursing home residents who test positive but have received less than three doses of COVID-19 vaccine can opt for holding centers run by the Social Welfare Department for care. The transitional arrangement will continue until Feb 28.

Meanwhile, all 71 of the Hospital Authority’s general outpatient clinics resumed normal services Monday and started to provide treatment to confirmed patients as well as prescribing oral anti-COVID drugs to patients in need. Patients can make appointments via the HA Go smartphone application or by telephone.

According to a government statement on Sunday, the clinics have enhanced their daily episodic consultation quota to more than 10,000, with 2,000 of them reserved for COVID-19 patients. Increased quotas will be deployed if necessary to treat COVID patients, a HA spokesperson said.

Confirmed patients can also seek treatment from private doctors, with 500 private doctors in the city prescribing oral medication for COVID patients.

READ MORE: HA reserves clinic quotas to support COVID-19 patients

Students still need to take rapid antigen tests before returning to school every day until the end of February, according to the Education Bureau

However, students still need to take rapid antigen tests before returning to school every day until the end of February, according to the Education Bureau.

In the meantime, teachers and staff, school-bus drivers and bus attendants no longer need to do so.

In the meantime, applications for the HK$5,000 ($638) one-off ex-gratia cash allowance for locally confirmed COVID-19 patients will close from Feb 14. The allowance scheme was introduced in November 2020 to help hospitalized COVID-patients, who are Hong Kong residents and don’t have paid sick leave or are self-employed. As of Friday, the government had paid HK$13.64 million to 2,728 residents under the scheme.

Previously, employees could claim for paid sick leave by the isolation orders issued by the government’s health officers. With the withdrawal of isolation orders, doctors can provide diagnosis and treatment and will issue sick leave certificates to COVID-19 patients according to their clinical situation, the government said in a guideline issued on Friday.

ALSO READ: COVID tests for mainland travel tipped to be lifted in a few days

Tam Kam-lin, vice-chairwoman of the Federation of Hong Kong and Kowloon Labour Unions, expressed her concerns over the new sick leave arrangement on Monday in a radio program.

She said in most cases, employees only get up to two days of sick leave for each medical visit. Patients may need to see doctors multiple times for more serious matters and the consultation costs may become a burden to grassroots families, Tam added.

Tam said that many employees in the retail, catering and transportation industries do not get their full salary and attendance bonus if they take sick leave. She urged business owners to consider accepting self-test results in the early stages of lifting the quarantine order to ease diagnosed employees’ financial burdens and ensure they have sufficient rest.


Share this story

CHINA DAILY
HONG KONG NEWS
OPEN
Please click in the upper right corner to open it in your browser !