The SUN HK : Covid-19 patients to be isolated for 2 weeks after discharge from hospital

By The SUN

All recovered patients will now have to spend 14 more days in North Lantau Hospital

Hong Kong begins implementing today, Oct. 27, a stricter rule for patients found infected with Covid-19. After being discharged from the hospital upon recovery, they will now be moved to the Infection Control Centre at North Lantau Hospital for 14 more days of isolation.

The new rule was announced by the government last night, following Chief Executive Carrie Lam’s statement at a press conference of a further tightening of Covid control measures to align them with those in the Mainland.

The government statement said, "As part of our proactive anti-epidemic strategy to maintain 'zero infection', patients who meet the discharge criteria will be subject to a 14-day isolation and health monitoring after being discharged from hospital.”

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It said patients who have recovered from infection may still carry the virus, so the latest arrangement would further reduce the risk of the spread of the disease into the community.

Before being moved to the isolation facility, patients with symptoms can only leave hospitals at least 10 days after the onset of illness, and had two negative test results on samples taken 24 hours apart, with greatly reduced symptoms and clear chest scan. They should not have had fever within three days before discharge.

Those who are asymptomatic should also spend at least 10 days in hospital, and should produce two negative test results for either a RT-PCR test or stool sample test taken 24 hours apart.

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All those who meet the discharge criteria will be transferred directly from the hospitals to the Infection Control Centre for the 14-day isolation and health monitoring.

As the Centre already takes care of stable patients aged between 18 and 65, those who were initially admitted there will have to stay two more weeks despite fulfilling discharge requirements.

The last batch to avoid being held back for another fortnight were the four patients who were discharged from public hospitals 24 hours before midnight last night.

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According to the Hospital Authority, a total of 12,033 with confirmed or probable infection have been discharged so far.

Patients need to stay at least 10 days in a hospital before being moved to 2-week isolation

As of today, a total of 49 confirmed patients remain in 10 public hospitals and the Infection Control Centre. All of them, plus those who are found to carry the virus from today, will be subjected to the additional isolation period.

Yesterday, CE Lam said that the tightened measures will also include greatly reducing the number of travelers who are allowed exemption from quarantine, but did not give a specific time frame nor the categories of people who will be stripped of the privilege.

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Currently, those exempt from quarantine include top executives coming from business travels, staff of foreign consulates, air and sea crew, and even movie stars who get special dispensation from the government to shoot a film here, like Nicole Kidman recently.

Mrs Lam said only those who provide essential services to Hong Kong, such as cross-border truck drivers, will retain their quarantine exemption.

She said the requirement to use the LeaveHomeSafe app when entering government premises is also part of the heightened measures.

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Responding to clamor from business people to reduce the quarantine period for new arrivals, Mrs Lam said this will happen only if the global Covid-19 situation improves, or there is a drastic reduction in the number of cases in a particular country, especially those considered as high risk.