The first specially arranged flight for those cleared to leave the Diamond Princess cruise liner touched down on Lantau Island on Thursday morning, repatriating 106 Hongkongers who are now under 14-day quarantine in a housing estate.

Tsang said the Immigration Department hoped the 30 or so close contacts of the 65 confirmed cases, which increased by 10 on Thursday, would be allowed to return to Hong Kong to see out the rest of their quarantine period.

He said a separate flight would be arranged for the close contacts because they were higher risk, with additional measures needed to protect cabin crew and public sector staff travelling with the group.

Infected passenger in ‘serious condition’

Earlier on Thursday night, one of the 65 infected Hong Kong passengers was said to be in a serious condition .

Pro-establishment lawmaker Vincent Cheng Wing-shun said the female patient was in intensive care and undergoing treatment but there had been “no obvious improvement in her condition”.

Radio host Sammy Leung Chi-kin said his parents, who are on the cruise, received a message from the Hong Kong Immigration Department on Thursday night saying the chartered flight would be rescheduled for Friday. They were previously told it would depart at 6pm Tokyo time on Thursday.

The seriously ill woman, a senior citizen, was being cared for in St Marianna Medical University Hospital in Kawasaki, according to Cheng, who has been supporting the patient and her family. Her husband is still on board the cruise liner.

Cheng added: “The doctors here are not familiar with the medical history of these patients, so I hope the Hong Kong government can bring a group of Hong Kong doctors specialising in infectious diseases to assist some 50 Hong Kong patients in Japan.”

Passengers snub evacuation

Four holidaymakers from Hong Kong have refused to be airlifted home. Two of them were immediately sent into quarantine after flying back to the city on their accord, a Department of Health spokesman said.

Newly released Yardley Wong was accused of threatening public health after she was pictured enjoying the food and drink scene in one of Tokyo’s busiest areas.

Wong, who has tested negative for Covid-19, was blasted on social media over a trip she took to Shinjuku when freed from the coronavirus-stricken cruise ship on Wednesday afternoon.

Another city passenger infected

Meanwhile, a TVB make-up artist on Thursday afternoon became the 56th infected Hong Kong passenger on board the liner, which had 364 city residents on board.

A spokeswoman from the Hong Kong broadcaster TVB said one of its make-up artists had been diagnosed with Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

“She told the company that she was confirmed this morning. She is receiving treatment in Japan. She has been on vacation since January 25,” the spokeswoman said.

Social media firestorm

Wong was subjected to a barrage of criticism after she posted pictures online from her hotel room in Shinjuku, one of Tokyo’s most crowded areas, as well as images of her dining and drinking in a Japanese restaurant.

Some internet users said she should not be allowed to travel freely in the country. One accused her of “spreading the disease” to which Wong replied: “You are spreading hate and racism.”

Work-from-home extended as another Hongkonger tests positive for virus

“Is it a crime to feel alive again?” said Wong, who endured two weeks of quarantine in a windowless cabin with her husband and six-year-old son.

“Nobody knows anything about the ship but the 3,700 [passengers and crew] and the front line [medical workers]. We are the living witnesses of this epic crisis. Nobody else.”

Straight to quarantine in Hong Kong

Unhappy with quarantine site

After inspecting his room at the Fo Tan estate, returnee David Yeung Kun-wah told the Post that he found the conditions “totally unacceptable”.

“I am not asking for a luxurious place, but it has to be at least clean,” the 70-year-old said. “Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor should come here and stay for a night to see for herself.”

The floor was not tiled, the concrete still exposed and the 150 sq ft room meant for him and his wife was dusty, he said.

“Imagine a family with children crawling around on the floor,” Yeung said.

The room is furnished with a table and some chairs, as well as a water boiler and a hair dryer. Instead of a wardrobe, there is a small rack for clothes and there is no washing machine. There was also no toilet paper, Yeung said.

Food is to be delivered to those staying at the estate, and residents need to check their body temperature every day, and write it down on a form.

Confusion over return from Japan

Yeung also said the evacuation had been chaotic as many did not know if they could leave the ship.

He waited anxiously for his health certification from the Japanese government on Wednesday night, having been told earlier he tested negative for the coronavirus.

The Hong Kong Immigration Department had told him he needed to show them the certificate before he could take the 9pm bus to the airport.

“I still did not have the certification by 8pm. I thought I couldn’t leave and so got ready to sleep,” he said. “But at 10.30pm, there was a broadcast on the ship that Hong Kong passengers should go and gather on the fourth floor.”

He asked security if he and his wife could leave and was told if his name was on the evacuation list, he could go home. He immediately called the Immigration Department and was told he and his wife were on the list.

“I immediately ran down there. It was chaotic. There was an elderly woman who fainted because the ventilation was not good,” he said, adding most of those who could leave were elderly and their family members.

Before he could board a coach to the airport, his name was checked three times on three lists, first by the ship’s security, then by the Japanese government, and finally by the Hong Kong officials.

Flight lands in Hong Kong

Cathay Pacific flight CX8543 landed at 8.30am, and was met by officers wearing protective gear.

The first two passengers walked out, each wearing a number and a mask, at 8.48am and got on a coach to the quarantine site.

Most of the passengers were elderly or middle-aged, and one looked relieved to be home and waved at officers.

The first coach left the airport shortly after 8.55am, and the first groups arrived at Chun Yeung Estate around 10.20am, driving through a police checkpoint without stopping.

‘Helpless’: Hongkongers on extended quarantine on Diamond Princess

In total eight coaches were used to take the passengers to the newly built development, with the last one leaving the airport at 9.56am.

While many looked tired, one man took out his mobile phone to take pictures of the occasion. Some elderly women had difficulty walking down the stairs, and their travelling partners and an officer had to support them as they descended.

The last coaches arrived at the estate at 11.05am. The 106 passengers will not be allowed to leave unless under exceptional circumstances.

People who do break the quarantine without permission will be subject to a HK$25,000 fine and six months in prison.

First groups arrive at quarantine site

Some 25 minutes later, another three coaches arrived, accompanied by a fleet of officers on motorcycles. Passengers waved out of windows and took video as they passed a police checkpoint.

A roadblock was erected on a thoroughfare leading to the newly built housing estate, while officers in riot gear patrolled outside the estate and at Fo Tan MTR station.

Chun Yeung Estate was designated as the fifth quarantine site, and was initially set aside for 269 people, although that could be increased to as many as 1,000 if needed.

Earlier this month, city leader Lam Cheng announced a U-turn on her pledge that no new public housing estates would be used for quarantine purposes, despite the fact that 4,000 out of the 4,846 flats there had been allocated to people on the waiting list for public rental housing.

A HK$6,000 government allowance offered to affected families did not stop residents expecting to move in from taking to the streets in protest, while some Fo Tan residents also objected.

However, Lam has stuck to her guns, pointing to the fact that three earlier quarantine sites were already full, and a fourth was nearly full.

Lawmaker’s concern for infected Hongkongers still stuck in Japan

Pro-establishment lawmaker Vincent Cheng Wing-shun, who was helping the Hongkongers stranded in Yokohama, said he was worried about the 55 confirmed to have contracted the virus.

In one case, Cheng said a husband and wife were sent to Nagoya city, but were separated by authorities there later. The man could not find his spouse, whose mobile phone lost signal and ran out of battery.

“He is worried about where his wife went, while he was unclear his whereabouts. Many cases, a total of some 50 cases, are happening like this,” Cheng said.

The lawmaker felt Japanese authorities had not yet developed a way to handle the infected cases, while hospitals he visited looked just like a normal hospital.

“For the whole system, in these few days, I feel that they have not had a great sense of awareness of [virus] prevention, to handle the potential outbreak they would face,” he said.

Husband and wife stranded in Japan

A 71-year-old man surnamed Chan is among the 55 infected Hongkongers hospitalised in Japan.

Chan said he was healthy at the moment, had no fever, and had not been coughing. He also did not have any problems breathing, as had happened to other patients.

Chan said he shared a room with another infected Hong Kong man, and four other infected locals. They used a public toilet in the aisle with other patients.

“I used to have premature atrial contractions in my heart in the past, but I have had regular visits to the doctors,” he said in text messages from his bed at the Chiba East Hospital, east of Tokyo.

His wife, 70, has had to remain on board the cruise ship because she was considered to have had close contact with an infected patient. She has stayed inside their cabin, which Chan said had not been disinfected.

Chan said he hoped the Hong Kong government would allow people such as his wife to take the chartered flight home, a request that has so far been rejected.

Security minister thanks Japan for ensuring passengers had a smooth journey home

“I’d like to express my gratitude to the Japanese government for they have done their best under such a big challenge to help us arrange our first chartered flight home on the first day of the evacuation,” Secretary for Security John Lee Ka-chiu said.

The minister said 16 passengers had declined to take the chartered flights and planned to return home by their own means. About 20 others were undecided.

“I hope they will change their minds and take the chartered flights. Otherwise, they may run into trouble booking their flights and accommodation,” he said.

Thrilled to be leaving Japan

As the first batch of returning passengers saw their nightmare holidays came to an end, about 250 others were still stranded in Japan, some on board the cruise ship that has been their prison, and others at hospitals.

But, as they began their journeys home in the early hours of Thursday, many were thrilled.

“I was worried that I would get infected on the cruise. I could hardly sleep every night in the past two weeks,” one passenger said at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport. “It feels that we could finally leave.”

As of Thursday afternoon, 622 out of 3,711 passengers on the Diamond Princess had contracted the coronavirus.

Security minister John Lee Ka-chiu said on Thursday morning there were 364 Hong Kong citizens on the ship, instead of the 352 announced previously.

The flight was supposed to leave Tokyo at 1.45am local time, but eventually took off at around 5am as the government wanted to take more passengers.

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Hong Kong office said in a Facebook post: “We wish all the Hong Kong passengers could go home safely soon! The great motherland will always be the Chinese people’s sturdiest shield!”