Ban on arrivals from high-risk countries should stay


  • 2021-04-19 HKT 10:06″ title=”Leung Chi-chiu says the coronavirus situation in India, Pakistan and the Philippines won’t improve quickly. File Photo: RTHK”>


    Leung Chi-chiu says the coronavirus situation in India, Pakistan and the Philippines won't improve quickly. File Photo: RTHK
    Leung Chi-chiu says the coronavirus situation in India, Pakistan and the Philippines won’t improve quickly. File Photo: RTHK

A specialist in respiratory medicine said on Monday that people arriving from India, Pakistan and the Philippines should be banned altogether until the coronavirus situation there improves.

The government has announced a two-week ban on flights from the three countries after identifying two cases in the community of a highly-infectious mutant strain of Covid-19.

Anyone who has stayed in these countries for more than two hours in the previous 21 days is also banned from flying into Hong Kong via other places.

But Dr Leung Chi-chiu said a 14-day ban would not be enough.

“We will have to keep this ban unless the situation there improves or unless we have devised other measures to reduce the chance of importation of these dangerous variants into Hong Kong,” he said.

University of Hong Kong microbiologist Dr Ho Pak-leung said the government acted too slowly, noting that the number of imported Covid-19 cases has been increasing for past two to three weeks.

He also urged the government to step up anti-infection measures at quarantine hotels, saying the variants could have been transmitted among travelers and staff there.

But Professor David Hui, who advises the government on its anti-epidemic strategy, said he believed the first coronavirus variant case found in the community did not contract the virus locally, but had an exceptionally long incubation period.

The patient tested negative for Covid-19 during his 21-day quarantine after he travelled from Dubai last month but was found to carry the mutant strain last week.

A friend he lived with during his stay in Hong Kong has also been infected with the variant.

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