Hong Kong to start home quarantine for close contacts on Tue after confirming 614 Covid cases

Hong Kong has reported a record 614 Covid-19 cases on Monday, and will start home quarantine for close contacts of patients on Tuesday.

A new community isolation center in Penny‘s Bay providing 600 individual units in the first phase will from Tuesday take stable Covid-19 patients with no or mild symptoms. That comes with the occupancy of isolation beds in hospitals reaching 81 percent.

In a press conference on Monday, health officials reported 614 newly confirmed Covid-19 cases and another 600 preliminary positive cases.

“The numbers do not look good. We hope citizens will cooperate in anti-epidemic measures,” Centre of Health Protection controller Edwin Tsui Lok-kin said, adding a new record of 800 Covid cases could be reported on Tuesday. 

In the past, all close contacts of patients are sent to Penny's Bay. From Tuesday, they will receive assessments for home quarantine. Close contacts of patients will be quarantined for 14 days, while family members of the close contacts will require four-day quarantine. 

Only those whose homes are fitting for isolation will be allowed to undergo home quarantine. Those who share toilets with their neighbors, for example, will continue to be sent to Penny's Bay, Tsui said.

People deemed fit for home quarantine will be given an electronic bracelet to track their whereabouts. They will be given an information pack, testing kit and a thermometer for monitoring their own conditions. Once they test positive, they will be sent to hospitals for further tests.

The Hospital Authority's chief executive manager, Larry Lee Lap-yip, said stable Covid patients will be moved from hospitals to the Penny’s Bay isolation facility, which will provide 600 rooms for patients starting from Tuesday so hospital beds could go to the severely ill.

Vaccinated young patients who are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms and are able to look out for themselves will be moved to Penny's Bay. But authorities will consider medical histories before patients are moved, Lee said, adding that doctors and nurses at Penny’s Bay will provide 24-hour support.

And as a precaution the Hospital Authority will set up a post in the facility to provide consultation services and symptom-relieving medications.

Among the 614 newly confirmed cases, 150 were related to previous cases. Sources of infection for other cases are still being investigated.

“Most of them involve family gatherings before or during Lunar New Year... for cases with untraceable sources of infection, some work in jobs which involve interactions with a lot of people, such as salespeople and security guards,” Chaung Shuk-kwan from the Centre of Health Protection said.

Authorities will investigate if there is transmissions within residential blocks including Kai Yan House, Kai Tin Estate in Lam Tin; Him Tat House, On Tat Estate in Kwun Tong; Willow House, So Uk Estate in Cheung Sha Wan; Leung Kit House, Leung King Estate in Tuen Mun; and Block 9 of Grandeur Terrace, Tin Shui Wai.

More elderly home residents -- one at the Hong Lok Yuen center in To Kwa Wan and two at Po Leung Kuk Kwok Law Kwai Chun Home for the Elderly in Sheung Wan -- tested positive Monday.

Chuang said around 130 residents at the two care homes had to go to the Penny's Bay quarantine center. She also said authorities will no longer release details of each case as it is “not so meaningful” any longer to spell out details of cases.

Lee said at least 17 public hospital staffers were infected -- a doctor at Tuen Mun Hospital and eight nurses and eight assistant staff at Prince of Wales Hospital, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Princess Margaret Hospital and Caritas Medical Centre.

Lee said 1,668 Covid-19 patients are being treated at public hospitals, and the current occupancy rate of isolation beds was 81.3 percent.

Among patients, a 77-year-old woman and an 84-year-old man were in critical condition.