By The SUN
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| Airlines as well as travelers welcomed the news |
The government announced today, Thursday, that it was suspending effective immediately its much-criticized flight suspension mechanism which was activated when a certain number of passengers flown in tested positive on arrival at the airport.
Instead, a previous practice of conducting PCR tests on the third day of quarantine of new arrivals will be resumed. This means arriving passengers will be tested seven times: within 48 hours prior to boarding, on arrival, the 3rd and 5th day while under seven-day hotel quarantine, plus day 9 and 12 after ending their quarantine.
The announcement said a current ban on four flights that triggered the suspension mechanism will be lifted immediately.
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No mention was made on whether the government will go one step further and cut the mandatory seven-day hotel quarantine. Previous reports said the proposal that would most likely get the government’s approval is for travelers to stay five days in a hotel, and the remaining two days under home quarantine.
On Tuesday Chief Executive John Lee said he had asked Health Secretary Lo Chung-mau to prepare a list of options for improving anti-pandemic measures, including a review of the seven-day hotel quarantine.
The announcement was made as Hong Kong's daily Covid-19 caseload shot up to 3,028 today, which included 172 imported cases.
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In its statement, the government said that available data and scientific analysis show that more frequent PCR tests for inbound travelers is more effective in halting the importation of Covid cases.
Current data show that while local infections have reached four-digits since mid-June and are still going up, the number of imported cases hovered at “just around a few dozen to below 200,” accounting for less than 10 percent of the overall tally.
More importantly, said the statement, over half of the imported cases were detected at the airport. Including those found during the quarantine period, the vast majority of imported cases were discovered, thus greatly reducing the risk of community outbreaks from them.
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With the restoration of the Day 3 test, the government said infected persons will be identified sooner, and provide authorities with timely data to help them conduct more precise and targeted anti-epidemic work.
The statement also acknowledged that the flight suspensions had caused problems to many Hong Kong-bound passengers in terms of securing new flights and/or bookings at quarantine hotels.
“When the supplies of seats on flights and DQH rooms are tight, the consequential social costs would be quite high,” said the statement.
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“Given that July and August have always been the peak period
for overseas Hong Kong people, in particular students pursuing studies overseas
to return to
Given the said reasons, continuing the flight suspensions at this stage is not very cost-effective in avoiding the importation of cases, added the statement.
The flight suspension mechanism was triggered when at least five passengers or 2/3 of all travelers on a single flight, whichever is smaller, test positive on arrival in Hong Kong.
The government said it will continue to refine border controls with the aim of guarding against the importation of cases while improving quarantine arrangements for inbound travelers to facilitate the flow of people necessary for resuming normal lives.
