Ifah SakinahStarting from midnight on Thursday (19 March), travellers arriving in Hong Kong from any foreign country will be put under home quarantine for a period of 14 days.
This drastic measure will come into effect so as to avert an outburst of coronavirus cases in the Special Administrative Region controlled by The People’s Republic of China – which appears to be efficacious in controlling the outbreak.
The new curtailment however would not apply to arrivals from mainland China, Macau or Taiwan.
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In early January, Hong Kong detected its first case of Covid-19. As a result of its swift implementation of ‘restrictive’ social distancing which include shutting schools, canceling large-scale events, closing government offices and ordering civil servants to work from home coupled with its strong community response, it has managed to avoid the scope of contagion witnessed in other countries and territories.
In spite of that, it faces the risk of imported cases spreading the disease nullifying the city’s vigorous attempt to contain the pandemic so far. City chief Carrie Lam mentioned on Tuesday that a majority of the new cases within the region were individuals with recent travel history.
Hong Kong has also issued a red outbound travel alert for all countries and territories so as to deter residents from leaving the city in its bid to ramp up measures to tackle the proliferating pandemic.
To date, Hong Kong has 157 confirmed cases of infection and four deaths.
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