Coronavirus: Hong Kong steps up Covid-19 screening rules for arrivals undergoing hotel quarantine, requiring more tests and experienced staff
- Tightening of testing regime for arrivals quarantined in designated hotels follows community detection of cases involving mutated strains
- Hong Kong marks sixth straight day without an untraceable coronavirus infection, but three new cases confirmed
The new measures were announced on Thursday night in response to the recent community detection of cases involving mutated strains of the coronavirus, which were only discovered after the infected arrivals had completed 21 days of hotel quarantine.
Earlier, Hong Kong marked its sixth straight day with no untraceable coronavirus cases, as a medical expert said the city was on its way to reaching zero local infections.
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Three new infections were confirmed – two imported and one involving a 40-year-old woman linked to a cluster of variant cases tied to an engineer who flew in from Dubai in March.
The tighter screening regime, which is already in force, requires arrivals to take a total of between two and four Covid-19 tests during their quarantine period, depending on the length of time they must spend in isolation.
To enhance the quality of the screening process, the government also imposed new contractual terms on the laboratories involved, requiring all those taking the samples to be registered or enrolled nurses with experience in infection control and collecting specimens.
The contractor must also appoint medical personnel with at least three years of managerial experience to oversee testing to ensure Department of Health standards were being met. They must also set up an internal assessment task force to monitor the effectiveness and quality of testing and submit regular self-auditing reports to the government.