Coronavirus: Hong Kong students and civil servants asked to help monitor people returning from mainland China as mandatory quarantine comes into force

Department of Health director writes to city’s universities asking for unpaid volunteers, as Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung does same

Quarantine comes into effect at midnight on Friday as part of measures to battle outbreak of deadly disease

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A worker uses an infrared thermometer to check the temperature of a passenger arriving at Hong Kong International Airport. Photo: Reuters

Published: 12:55pm, 7 Feb 2020Updated: 5:59pm, 7 Feb 2020

Hong Kong students and civil servants are being recruited to help monitor people returning to the city from mainland China, who will be subject to mandatory quarantine from midnight on Friday.

As the government stepped up measures to combat the coronavirus outbreak, university students enrolled on medical and nursing programmes were being approached to volunteer, but details on how it would be carried out remained sketchy.

People crossing the border into Hong Kong will be quarantined for 14 days, starting on Saturday.

In an email to students, Dr Edmund Fong, principal medical officer at the Department of Health, said the need for volunteers was urgent.

“The new measure entails a surge of work such as medical surveillance and offering health advice to these people,” he wrote.

“As such, the Department of Health appeals to your support and is urgently looking for Year 5 and Year 6 medical students who are interested to be our volunteers and help us to conduct the surveillance work.”

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