Coronavirus: Hong Kong virus experts urge quarantine hotels to boost room ventilation, corridor air supply following Silka Seaview cluster
- Professor David Hui says that hotels are not designed for disease control and recommends ventilation upgrades to ensure ‘at least six air changes per hour’
- Hotel guests should also be reminded to close windows when they open their door to reduce the risk of transmitting the virus, according to a HKU engineering professor
Hong Kong health experts have urged quarantine hotels to pump more fresh air into high-risk corridors and enhance ventilation in guest rooms to minimise the risk of spreading Covid-19 in the wake of a cluster caused by cross-infections.
“For quarantine hotels, the more ventilation facilities they have for more air changes, the better,” said government pandemic adviser and Chinese University Professor David Hui Shu-cheong.
Hui said that while hotels were not designed for disease control like hospitals, they could install more ventilation facilities to ensure “at least six air changes per hour” in guest rooms and corridors.
“If they can’t do so in their guest rooms, they can put in place more [high-efficiency air filters] to purify the air,” he added.
The advice followed the emergence of an expanding cluster involving at least 56 people and a school, which was started by a cross-infection at the Silka Seaview Hotel in Yau Ma Tei last week, where six guests staying in four different rooms across two separate floors tested positive for the Omicron variant.
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The Silka Seaview has temporarily ceased operations, with all guests being transferred to other locations and reservations no longer available for booking.
Leading microbiologist Professor Yuen Kwok-yung, who joined the Centre for Health Protection’s investigation at the hotel last week, had said that poor ventilation could have led to cross infections between floors as some rooms did not have purifiers.
Yuen said the virus could have spread through the corridors when one occupant opened their door to pick up supplies about 30 seconds before a neighbour opened theirs.
He added that the hotel had complied with all safety regulations, but suggested ensuring that all rooms were equipped with air purifiers to improve air change and minimise risks.
University of Hong Kong Professor Li Yuguo, chair of the building environment department, said it was impossible for quarantine hotels to be risk-free.
“It’s not the fault of the hotels. What you can do is to change the situation to minimise the infection,” he said. “I would suspect that even if you don’t open the doors, there is a risk. The air will come through the door gaps. You cannot avoid the risk.”
“Omicron probably needs more airflow and a higher ventilation rate than the ones we have had before. We just cannot confirm it,” he said, recommending that corridors increase their air supply and ventilation because they were shared spaces.
Professor Hui also advised hotels to remind guests to shut their windows whenever they opened room doors to minimise any transmission of the virus.
“They must keep their windows closed before opening their doors,” he said.
The Silka Seaview had declined to comment on its ventilation when contacted by the Post.
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A spokesman for the Food and Health Bureau said that all quarantine hotels had to meet the infection control requirements such as location, design, facilities, ventilation and workflow, with each venue being subject to spot checks.
Currently, the city has about 40 government-designated quarantine hotels providing 11,500 rooms for inbound travellers, with the number set to reach 44 venues with 12,500 spaces from March.
Among the guidelines, ventilation systems were required to operate all day and the exhaust airflow rate had to be kept at least 18 litres per second.
Several hotels contacted by the Post said that they were following the government’s infection control guidelines.
A spokesman for Langham Hong Kong hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui, which will offer 498 quarantine rooms from March, said they had bought about 700 additional air purifiers.
“Our hotel ventilation original design does have primary air units and rooftop extraction fans to provide a complete separation ventilation system in our guest rooms which already meet the standard,” he said.
W Hong Kong in West Kowloon, which had 252 quarantine rooms, said they had monitored the ventilation panels hourly and ensured any necessary replacements were done immediately.
“We have installed additional air purifier machines in every guest room, hallway and elevators to enhance the quality of airflow. We keep them on at all times,” W Hong Kong’s spokeswoman said.
Ovolo Hotels said that they had spent about HK$200,000 (US$25,680) on air purifiers for its two quarantine venues – Southside and Central, which offered 160 rooms and 39 rooms respectively.
“We require guests to close the windows when opening their door to collect food to maintain the airflow in the room,” it said.
A spokesman for EAST Hong Kong, which will offer 256 quarantine rooms for Cathay Pacific cabin crew between February and July this year, said the hotel had “hired an independent, registered ventilation contractor to enhance the system”.
He added that air purifiers had been installed in every guest room and corridor, as well as the hotel lobby.
