Coronavirus: cleaners sent to collect rubbish from quarantined Hongkongers given ‘no guidelines or demonstrations’ on how to use protective equipment

Street cleaners made to draw lots to decide who had to remove trash from flats of about 1,100 people under quarantine

Food and Environmental Hygiene Department Staff Rights Union says practice exposes workers to risk and increases chance of virus spreading

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The FEHD Staff Rights Union has warned street cleaning services will suffer if its employees are deployed to collect trash from those under quarantine. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

Published: 8:24pm, 13 Feb 2020Updated: 8:24pm, 13 Feb 2020

Cleaners in Hong Kong have been sent to collect rubbish at the homes of those quarantined from the deadly coronavirus with inadequate protection, a government union has said.

The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department Staff Rights Union said the practice exposed workers to the disease now known as Covid-19 and increased the risks of community transmission if the cleaners became infected.

The new tasks were rolled out last Saturday after all residents arriving in Hong Kong from mainland China were obliged to quarantine themselves at home for a period of 14 days. Anyone caught flouting the rules faces a maximum fine of HK$25,000 and six months in jail.

Union chairman Vincent Au Bong-tim said the department had ordered street cleaners to draw lots to decide who had to help about 1,100 people under quarantine who needed trash removed from their flats.

Au said workers were given full protective gear and requested to doorstep quarantined flats to collect trash bags from residents, spray them with 1:49 diluted household bleach before placing them in another plastic bag for disposal.

But a cleaner working in Tai Po, Chan Pok-yin, said they were given “no written guidelines, no videos and no demonstrations on the proper way to wear the suits, face shields and safety eyewear” before being sent to the flats.