Helpers queue for tests as zero local cases recorded

Health officials on Sunday reported a second consecutive day of zero locally-acquired Covid-19 infections, as thousands of foreign domestic workers queued-up on their weekly rest day for mandatory coronavirus tests ordered by the government.

The city’s 370,000 domestic workers were ordered on Friday to get tested by May 9 after the discovery of a more-infectious Covid strain in the community, with one helper from the Philippines found to be carrying it.

The government also said it planned to make it mandatory for helpers to be vaccinated against Covid in future.

The move has been criticised by local migrant worker advocacy groups, who questioned why they were being singled out. SAR government officials insisted the measure was not discriminatory.

The Philippines’ foreign affairs secretary Teddy Locsin Jr also criticised the move on social media.

“Though the effect is good and saving, still marking them out smacks of discrimination and if it is a special favor, it is unfair to other nationalities,” he wrote on Twitter. “HK can do better than that.”

He backed up earlier remarks by the Philippines consul-general Raly Tejada, who had called on the SAR not to force migrant workers to be inoculated.

Also on Sunday, local health authorities said they were investigating two imported cases from Indonesia, a 39-year-old woman and a 44-year-old woman who were both asymptomatic.

Passenger flights from Istanbul, operated by Turkish Airlines, will also be banned from May 3 until May 16, authorities said.

The two-week ban was imposed after three passengers who landed in the SAR on April 27 aboard flight TK083 tested positive for Covid-19 upon arrival.

Hong Kong has recorded 21 local infections, and one possibly local, from a total of 129 cases in the past two weeks. Nine of the recorded cases were infected via unknown sources.

In total, the city has recorded 11,785 Covid infections.