Editorial | More clarity needed on Hong Kong pilots and aircrew
- It is still not entirely clear whether they can go out and about or are confined to their rooms because of Covid-19 when they fly between locations
There are no safe loopholes in a Covid-19 zero-tolerance policy. Evidence of this is to be found in hundreds of people being sent into quarantine at Penny’s Bay, a school closure and mass testing.
This was after two Cathay Pacific cargo pilots, including one with a teacher-wife and two children at Discovery Bay International School, returned from Frankfurt testing positive for a strain of the Delta variant. The incident should prompt sympathy for everyone involved. But it also warrants some serious soul-searching.
The pilots apparently mingled with a local community experiencing a fourth wave of contagion and rising case numbers. This has sparked calls for tightening or withdrawal of quarantine exemptions for aircrew.
Cathay faces a dilemma amid the disruption of global supply chains by the pandemic. On the one hand, there are concerns that such a potential loophole could jeopardise the city’s efforts to match the mainland’s zero-tolerance policy in order to achieve a border reopening.
On the other, Cathay warned that tightening measures would further disrupt the supply chain. A spokesman said: “It is important to maintain the flow of cargo between Hong Kong and the rest of the world.”