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| From tomorrow, all passengers arriving at HK Airport in the morning will be made to wait for their test result at AsiaWorld-Expo |
A
29-year-old male student, most likely a Filipino resident studying in the
Philippines, is one of two new confirmed cases of Covid-19 reported in Hong Kong
today, Apr 18.
According
to Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan of the Centre for Health Protection, the student, who is
asymptomatic, arrived from Manila yesterday, and left a deep-throat saliva
sample at the AsiaWorld-Expo testing centre before heading home in Tung Chung.
The sample tested positive for Covid-19 today.
He has
three close contacts: his parents and a friend, who live in the same house.
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The
other patient is a four-year-old girl who flew in with her mother from the
United Kingdom on Apr 10.
The
mother was immediately found infected on arrival, and was sent to hospital. The
girl returned a negative result then, but was put under quarantine with her
father – who was not with them in the UK- for being a close contact.
Yesterday,
the girl developed a runny nose, and was tested again. The result was positive, so she was sent to Queen
Mary Hospital for treatment.
Dr
Chuang said that from noon tomorrow, Apr 19, all residents arriving in Hong
Kong in the morning from overseas, will be tested at the ASW and will not be
allowed to leave for the mandatory 14-day home quarantine unless they return a
negative result.
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| Chuang says they are looking at testing all new arrivals, regardless of where they have come from |
But the
compulsory testing can’t be done on those arriving in the afternoon or evening.
“If we
hold the travelers in the morning, we will have some time to process the test
and give back the test in the evening. But if they arrive in the afternoon,
they will have to stay overnight,” she said.
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“It will
be difficult for a large number of people to stay overnight in the AWE site. We
are actively exploring other options to see whether we can test all the
travelers in Hong Kong.”
But she
clarified that the previous practice of requiring all arriving passengers from
Europe and the United States to wait for their test results will continue,
given the large number of travelers from the two places who are found infected
on arrival in Hong Kong.
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Also,
passengers found with symptoms will be taken directly to a hospital where they
will be tested for the coronavirus.
Today’s
cases brought Hong Kong’s total tally to 1,024, with 35 more patients
discharged. There are 481 patients still in hospital, 9 of them in critical
condition. Four people have died.
