Coronavirus: US health officials admit raising of Hong Kong risk level was a mistake
- Centres for Disease Control and Protection had bewildered experts by moving the city from ‘low’ risk to ‘moderate’ and advising travellers be fully vaccinated
- Hong Kong, meanwhile, confirms 5 imported cases on Wednesday, while issuing a 2-week ban on Turkish Airlines flights from Istanbul
United States health authorities made a mistake in raising the coronavirus risk level for Hong Kong to moderate, official sources told the Post on Wednesday, adding the city had been reinstated as a low-threat destination.
The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Monday escalated the status from “low” to “moderate”, urging Americans to “make sure you are fully vaccinated before travelling to Hong Kong”, adding, “if you must travel and have concerns, talk to your doctor”.
Two US sources confirmed that authorities in the city were told the change was an error that had been fixed. The CDC’s website has been updated to show once again that Hong Kong’s risk is low.
Where destinations are placed on the CDC scale depends on the number of infections per 100,000 people and a “new case trajectory” over a 28-day period, though no specifics about how that is calculated are provided on its website.
The four levels range from “low” to “very high”, with the latter meaning all travel to a destination should be avoided.
The status downgrade had left local residents and experts alike bewildered, as Hong Kong had not recorded any local infections since August 17.
On Wednesday, the city confirmed five new imported cases, bringing its tally to 12,214 infections, with 213 related deaths.
Two of the new cases were foreign domestic workers arriving from the Philippines, while the others came from Jordan and Japan. Fewer than five preliminary-positive cases were reported.
No Covid-19 infections, meanwhile, were found in an overnight lockdown of Two Island Place in North Point triggered by a suspected reinfection case.
The Centre for Health Protection said the patient, a 22-year-old man, was asymptomatic upon admission to hospital and tested positive for antibodies.
Separately, Turkish Airlines has been banned from flying from Istanbul to Hong Kong for two weeks – from Wednesday to October 12 after a passenger tested positive for Covid-19 on arrival and two others on the same flight failed to comply with the city’s disease prevention regulations.
Speaking to lawmakers on Wednesday, Secretary for Labour and Welfare Law Chi-kwong said the latest rate of confirmed cases among domestic workers arriving from the Philippines stood at 4 per cent, reiterating that measures allowing more helpers to come to Hong Kong could not be rushed.
“If there are 8,000 people coming to Hong Kong, how many infected cases will there be, and how many times will the flight suspension mechanism be invoked?” Law asked.
He added the government was still in discussions with eligible hotels that were interested in operating as quarantine facilities for domestic workers.
The city has so far designated 1,000 rooms at its Penny’s Bay quarantine centre and 409 at the Silka Tsuen Wan hotel for that purpose.
