By Daisy CL Mandap
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| Many Filipinos still come to HK with the virus, despite testing negative back home |
There has been a renewed call to ban
foreign domestic helpers from entering Hong Kong as six more Filipina migrant
workers were included in the list of Covid-19 cases today, Apr 5. Three of them
carried the highly infections N501Y strain of the coronavirus.
A total of 16 new infections were reported, and all but one were imported cases.
The other imported cases included five returning residents from India, and four from Pakistan. Two travelers from India and another two from Pakistan also had the coronavirus variant.
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The sole local case had an unknown source.
A second infectious disease expert has called on the government to consider banning people from high-risk places from coming to Hong Kong, or limit the ban to FDHs since many of them have come in with both Covid-19 and the mutated strain of the virus.
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Speaking on an RTHK program, Dr Leung Chi-chiu warned there was an increasing risk that mutant variants could spread in the city, as most of the recent Covid infections were imported cases.
Leung said the government should review whether to continue letting travelers from high-risk places enter Hong Kong, and suspend the entry of FDHs.
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His views echoes those of microbiologist Yuen Kwok-yung who warned earlier of a possible leak of the variant in quarantine hotels where new arrivals are held for 21 days and tested two more times for Covid-19 before being given the all-clear.
Responding anew to queries about the proposed ban, Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan of the Centre for Health Protection reiterated that Hong Kong has enough restrictions in place to stop the spread of the mutated viruses in the community.
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“We are already instituting one of the strictest border controls in the world, the 21-day quarantine in designated hotels,” said Chuang.
On top of this, she said new arrivals are subjected to frequent testing to make sure that they are not infected with the coronavirus before they are allowed to join the community.
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“But of course, the government may consider other restrictions in the future.”
She made her statements amid reports of an unprecedented surge in infectious in countries where many of the new arrivals in Hong Kong come from.
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| India's surge in Covid-19 cases is partly blamed on people flouting quarantine rules |
In India today, the daily infections rose above 100,000 for the first time. Only the United States and Brazil have seen triple-digit increases in Covid-19 cases in one day.
In the Philippines, whose population of about 110 million is a tenth of India’s, the daily tally also rose to a record 15,000 plus cases last Friday. It declined to 8,355 today, but the daily surges for the past week has pushed the country’s total active cases to 143,726, the highest in the region.
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According to Chuang,
all the infected Filipina DHs flew in aboard Cebu Pacific Flight 5J272,
although on two different dates.
One, who is 42 years old, arrived on Apr 3 and tested positive at the airport. The five others, aged 27, 28, 31, 34 and 37, came on Mar 23 and tested positive on their second test while in hotel quarantine.
The five passengers
from India all flew in aboard Vistara Airlines, four on Apr 4 (UK6395), and one
(UK6391) on Mar 1. As a result, Hong Kong has imposed a 14-day ban on passenger
flights of Vistara from Delhi starting tomorrow, in line with anti-epidemic
regulations.
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It is not clear,
though, why the same ban was not imposed on Cebu Pacific, which flew in five
passengers in a single flight from Manila.
The four passengers
from Pakistan came on two different dates, but all flew aboard Emirates
Airlines Flight EK384. Two arrived on Apr 3 and tested positive at the airport while the two others, on Mar 23, and were found infected on their 12th day in hotel quarantine.
Meanwhile, the sole
local case is said to be a 32-year-old salesman at a Fortress shop at Wai Fung
Plaza in Mong Kok who stopped going to work on Mar 22 so he could look after
his wife who was about to give birth.
His wife gave birth on
Mar 24 at United Christian Hospital, but Chuang said the patient did not enter
the delivery room or the wards and just waited outside in the corridors.
But he did go to the
wet market on the ground floor of Lei Yue Muen Plaza every day for the past
week, where a couple who recently tested positive for Covid-19 had also been
to.
The man’s wife and
their baby are now said to be in quarantine, as well as some other family
member and dozens of his colleagues.
CHP has issued a compulsory
testing order on anyone who had been to the wet market or the shop on Nathan
Road in the past 14 days for at least two hours.
Chuang said there were
two or three preliminary positive cases, but all were imported.
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