Coronavirus: Hong Kong mulls ban on home quarantine for domestic helpers as influx expected in coming weeks

Labour chief reveals plan to change quarantine rules for helpers as city reaches two weeks without any locally transmitted cases of Covid-19

As many as 10,000 workers from the Philippines are expected to arrive in Hong Kong in the short term

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Thousands of domestic workers are expected to arrive in Hong Kong in coming weeks. Photo: Nora Tam

Published: 5:56pm, 27 Jun 2020Updated: 7:43pm, 3 Aug 2020

Quarantine rules for domestic helpers may be revised to ban employers from isolating at home 10,000 workers expected to fly into Hong Kong from the Philippines in the coming weeks, the city’s labour minister has revealed, as he warned the influx could bring in an estimated 65 imported Covid-19 cases.

Secretary for Welfare and Labour Law Chi-kwong’s remarks came as Hong Kong on Saturday reached two weeks without any locally transmitted cases of Covid-19. One imported case involving a 39-year-old woman arriving from the Philippines was reported, taking the city’s infection tally to 1,197.

The city has been hit by a surge of imported cases recently, recording 69 infections from residents returning from abroad this week, mostly from Pakistan. Nine cases were from the Philippines.

Law Chi-kwong ruled out subsidising employers for accommodation costs. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Law ruled out subsidising employers to find other accommodation for their helpers or providing government facilities, saying such moves would go against the city’s efforts to contain the virus.

“We really want to help, but any way which will directly or indirectly encourage the movement of domestic helpers from Hong Kong to their homeland or from their homeland back to Hong Kong is not consistent with our policy to restrict such movement to reduce the risk of spread of the virus,” he said.