The compulsory 14-day hotel quarantine for arrivals in Hong Kong from high-risk places for Covid-19 has been operative for a few months, and this rule was extended to all arrivals except those from China in November. My understanding of the rationale for the two weeks’ stay is that the Covid-19 incubation period can be as long as a fortnight. It would now be helpful if the Hong Kong government could disclose statistics relating to the quarantine experience. In particular, it would be interesting to be told: The total number of people arriving who have been through the 14-day quarantine over the past two months; The number of these arrivals who have been diagnosed with Covid-19 over the course of the quarantine; The number of diagnoses on each day of the two-week quarantine period, or at the very least how many of those diagnosed got it in week one, and how many in week two. I would guess that most of those diagnoses occurred in the first week of quarantine, but is this correct? If so, and if few diagnoses occurred from day eight onwards, that would be a powerful argument for reducing the quarantine period going forward to one week. A two-week quarantine in a hotel is both expensive and generally unpleasant and stressful, and is clearly a huge deterrent to international travel. One week’s quarantine is far easier for would-be travellers to come to terms with, and if such a reduction can be justified by the actual facts over the past two months, it should be implemented as soon as possible. So give us the facts. Patrick B. Paul, Mid-Levels So much owed by so many to so few It is heartening that scientists across the world have been able present encouraging results from coronavirus vaccine trials. Covid-19 surfaced in November 2019 , but its ravenous spread really started in February this year. Within nine months, scientist were able to present results from trials by three vaccine front-runners, Pfizer, Moderna and Oxford-AstraZeneca . A few more vaccines may emerge, including from Johnson & Johnson, since they are in trial stages. Normally vaccines would take years and even decades to be given final shape. In managing Covid-19, the international scientific community has rendered great humanitarian service by working with exemplary speed. Our scientists and pharmaceutical companies who worked on this project deserve a standing ovation. No doubt we will soon be able to say of the scientists what British prime minister Winston Churchill said of his fighter pilots and bomber crews in World War II: “Never … was so much owed by so many to so few”. Rajendra Aneja, Mumbai
