Expert opposes relaxation of quarantine period

A specialist in respiratory medicine has cast doubt on the government’s plan to relax quarantine requirements for people flying back to Hong Kong who are fully vaccinated against coronavirus.

Leung Chi-chiu said on Wednesday that such a move would be “extremely dangerous”, especially when Hong Kong is faced with the threat of mutated strains of Covid-19 entering the community.

He made the comment a day after Health Secretary Sophia Chan told lawmakers that the quarantine period for those who fly back at least 14 days after being fully vaccinated could be reduced from the current 21 days to 14 or even seven days.

But Leung said the proposal lacks a scientific basis.

“If you look at the scientific data, there is nothing from our data to show the vaccine is in a position to change the incubation period. And when we decide on the quarantine period, we mainly take into account the incubation period so that we can cover the whole incubation period to prevent missing these cases,” he said.

“If we shorten it only because of the vaccination, there is a high risk that we will miss many of these cases, especially during this period when we are facing the invasion of variant strains into our community.”

“None of the existing vaccine has been shown to be completely effective in preventing transmission, and there’s also concern whether the efficacy will be substantially reduced by some of the variant strains, especially from the African variant strain, for that we need to take extra care,” Leung added.

The expert warned that if any imported cases are missed because of a shortened quarantine period for some, it may result in thousands of people having to be isolated.

Leung stressed the administration should instead step up measures to prevent imported cases from entering the community.

He said people quarantined in hotels should be tested for antibodies, to identify those who have recently recovered from the disease.

“Because there is a certain proportion of these infected persons, for example, one to two percent, who might be setting the virus intermittently in their upper airway in the subsequent 12 weeks, if we cannot differentiate them from other recently infected persons, we may be quarantining a lot more of our citizens unnecessarily,” he said.