Overnight buses laid on for Covid-positive airport passengers

Health authorities took immediate action to provide a shuttle bus service throughout the night to bring Covid-positive inbound travelers from the airport to isolation facilities after The Standard exclusively revealed that travelers had to spend the night in the cold of the baggage claim area.

The Standard yesterday reported that travelers arriving at Hong Kong International Airport on late-night flights had to stay at the airport overnight as the authorities had failed to arrange night-shift buses to carry them to isolation facilities.

They had to stay in the baggage claim area - without being separated from other travelers who tested negative and even share the restrooms with them.

In a statement yesterday, the government said it had increased the frequency of shuttle buses carrying Covid patients from the airport to community isolation facilities.

"To tie in with the latest quarantine arrangements of the government, the Fire Services Department has enhanced the anti-epidemic coach services at HKIA starting from noon today to every 30 minutes from 6am to 1am and every hour from 1am to 6am daily," it said. Previously, Fire Services Department coaches with more than 20 seats were arranged to run every three hours from 9am to midnight.

Travelers arriving late at night had to wait until the next morning for the shuttles.

Before the new arrangement came into effect at noon yesterday, the government also arranged another anti-epidemic vehicle to carry three Covid patients to isolation facilities at 4am, the government said.

It added that around 10 to 50 inbound travelers who tested positive for Covid were transferred from the airport to isolation facilities every day from August 1 to Tuesday.

The government said a task group on anti-epidemic transportation will continue to review the operation of point-to-point transport services.

A traveler who was trapped at the airport on Sunday night with her 12-year-old daughter yesterday told The Standard last night that she would like to thank the government for starting the night shift shuttle buses for Covid patients.

"It will not only help in stopping the spread of Covid-19 but will also make the patients comfortable once they reach the hotel," she said.

"They can at least rest more and have some warm water and food."

She also urged the government to put isolated patients in a zone where they can charge their phones while waiting for shuttle buses.

"Their families want to know what is happening with them and where they will go for isolation," she said.

But she wished the authorities could have started the night shuttle service a bit earlier because many other travelers could have benefited from it instead of being left at the airport.

The traveler earlier said she was left at the airport's baggage claim area for 12 hours without food, blanket or phone charger, adding that no staff offered to help. "The worst is, once you are positive, no one will come to check your temperature or even offer you any help," she said.

Another traveler whose wife and six-year-old daughter had to stay at the airport overnight on Saturday said last night the SAR should ease its strict anti-epidemic measures and live with Covid.

"People for years have had to weigh whether they can visit sick and dying relatives against going into debt for prolonged quarantine stays at elevated hotel prices and losing their job all while there has never been a clearly communicated exit strategy for all the sacrifices people have made," he said.

"It seems the city won the first half of the battle by keeping the virus at bay until vaccines were developed, but it has lost the second half as the inevitable outcome of living with Covid-19 appears to be frustratingly pushed further and further out."

wallis.wang@singtaonewscorp.com