Letters | New rule must end the nightmare that now passes for Hong Kong airport’s arrivals process
- Readers discuss measures to improve the on-arrival quarantine procedures, how to prevent Covid-19 surges in care homes, and wonder why triple-vaccinated residents must submit to quarantine
After spending six weeks in Thailand – where life is pretty much back to normal and the government seems be doing a remarkably good job of protecting both its people’s health and their livelihoods with its Covid-19 management – we arrived back in “Asia’s World City” last week, and entered another universe.
The arrivals process at the airport appeared to have been taken over by the Department of Health, with zero consideration for the well-being of arriving passengers. During the process, which lasted three-and-a-half hours, we passed through a lengthy maze of walkways between different stations, with no provision for drinking water and poor air-conditioning. Worst of all, at two stages we waited for close to an hour in tightly packed pens and queues, with zero recognition of any kind of social distancing.
Having suffered the torture of the existing system, I would appreciate any improvement.
Requiring all travellers to submit their health declaration electronically before their arrival is aimed at hastening the on-arrival quarantine procedures. But if one still has to take the train and walk through a maze of the Department of Health’s making, do a PCR and an RAT test and pick up a quarantine order before taking the train back to normal arrivals, it could hardly be defined as an “express channel” as mentioned in the press release.
