Coronavirus Hong Kong: 800 quarantine rooms for domestic helpers gone within minutes of becoming available

The snapping up of spots at Penny’s Bay facility easily outpaces the 24 hours it took to book the 409-room Silka Tsuen Wan hotel

‘If you spent even just two minutes longer to double-check passport details … you would’ve been too late to book a slot,’ employment agency figure says

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Eight hundred rooms at the Penny’s Bay quarantine centre became available on Tuesday morning. Within minutes, they were all booked. Photo: Sam Tsang

Published: 11:29am, 14 Sep 2021Updated: 11:37pm, 14 Sep 2021

A Hong Kong quarantine facility offering 800 places for the swelling number of foreign domestic workers headed back to the city was fully booked within minutes of its online reservation system opening on Tuesday morning.

Users were allowed to start waiting 45 minutes before the bookings opened for the spots dedicated to inbound workers – mainly arrivals from the Philippines and Indonesia – at the government’s Penny’s Bay quarantine facility.

Hong Kong confirmed two new Covid-19 infections involving airline passengers from the Philippines and Qatar on Tuesday, pushing the city’s tally of cases to 12,148, with 213 related deaths. Fewer than five preliminary-positive cases were also reported.

Separately, the city’s “Come2HK” scheme, a quarantine-free travel arrangement for non-Hong Kong residents arriving from Guangdong and Macau, is slated to start on Wednesday. The scheme’s designated online booking system, offering 2,000 slots a day, will open every Wednesday for the next 2½ weeks, with reservations offered on a first come, first served basis.

Also from Wednesday, arrivals to the city holding Covid-19 vaccination records issued outside Hong Kong will be able to receive a QR code showing proof of inoculation for local use, such as when entering certain bars and restaurants. Inbound air travellers will be issued the QR code along with their compulsory quarantine order, with the arrangement set to be extended to land arrivals from September 28.