More isolation rooms for arriving helpers

Bookings for quarantine rooms at Penny's Bay for incoming domestic helpers will reopen on Monday as authorities provide an additional 200 units starting from October 22.

That means Penny's Bay isolation camp will offer 1,000 units for helpers to undergo a 21-day quarantine.

Authorities suspended the booking system for helpers' quarantine at Penny's Bay two weeks ago after agencies complained the arrangement to release 50 rooms for booking every morning was too demanding as they had to fight for the highly competitive quota on a daily basis.

The Labour and Welfare Bureau yesterday announced it will reopen bookings at 9am on Monday, when employers and agencies can book rooms between October 22 and 28, and the system will open bookings at the same time every week.

Secretary for Labour and Welfare Law Chi-kwong said the department will process the applications in the order of submission and contact successful applicants after one to two days to request for the helper's passport, employment visa and vaccination record.

Applicants will only be asked to pay after the department approves the documents.

Despite sparing 200 more Penny's Bay units for helpers, Law said the quota of the center taking not more than 50 helpers each day will not be changed.

"If too many people come every day, it could possibly trigger the flight ban mechanism if there are [positive] cases upon arrival," he said.

Law said having this number translates to a demand of 1,050 rooms, and the current provision of 1,000 units is more or less the same.

For helpers whose contracts will terminate by the end of the year, authorities have allowed their employers to extend temporary contracts for up to six months, before their replacements arrive.

Separately, authorities last night locked down Two Island Place in North Point as a prudent measure after a resident who was infected in India in April tested preliminary positive for residual virus.

The 22-year-old man left Hong Kong in mid-April and returned from Serbia on Qatar Airways flight QR818 on September 12.

He had completed a 14-day quarantine before returning home to Two Island Place, but tested positive as a suspected re-positive case yesterday.

Authorities locked down the building at 7pm yesterday in order for all residents to be tested by 2am today, with a target to unseal the area by 7am.

The SAR yesterday recorded 13 imported cases, including nine having received at least one vaccine dose.

Separately, the social distancing measures that expire tomorrow will be extended for two weeks until October 13.

Most of the measures remain the same, but banquets with more than two-thirds of the guests vaccinated will see the cap relaxed to 240 attendees.

Infectious disease expert Ho Pak-leung from the University of Hong Kong said authorities should consider seeking assistance from police to stop people escaping quarantine hotels - after a 75-year-old man who returned from Italy left Ramada Hong Kong Grand in Tsim Sha Tsui on Sunday.

Police found him on Monday night at a nursing home in Sheung Wan.

Meanwhile, the United States has elevated its Covid-19 risk level for Hong Kong to moderate, from low. It urged unvaccinated Americans at a greater risk of severe illness to avoid nonessential trips to the city, which has not recorded a local infection in more than a month.

jane.cheung@singtaonewscorp.com