6 Indo DHs found infected on arrival, nearly triggers country ban

By Daisy CL Mandap 

Garuda has been suspended from flying to HK for the second time this month

Six Indonesian domestic helpers who flew into Hong Kong aboard the same flight on June 20 are among seven new confirmed Covid-19 cases today, Jun 22.

According to staff at the Centre for Health Protection, the seventh is a 51-year-old male seafarer who did not enter Hong Kong but whose specimen sample was sent in for testing from aboard his ship.

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CHP also said that four of the Indonesians, aged 28, 33, 34 and 37, tested positive for the L452R variant of the coronavirus on arrival at Hong Kong airport, thus triggering a new two-week ban on Garuda Airlines flight GA876 from Jakarta.

The two others, aged 37 and 41, were found infected on the same day after they were taken to Penny’s Bay quarantine centre, having been identified as close contacts of their four co-passengers. CHP said it is not known if they carry the variant, as test results are still pending.

PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE

Had five of them tested positive for any form of mutant virus on arrival at HK airport, all flights from Indonesia would have been halted in line with restrictions imposed on May 4 under Cap 599H of the Prevention and Control of Disease Ordinance.

This regulation provides: “Under the existing place-specific flight suspension mechanism, if among all passenger from the same place, regardless of airline, a total of five or more passengers were confirmed positive by arrival tests for Covid-19 with the N501Y mutant strain or relevant virus mutation within a seven-day period, or a total of 10 or more passengers were confirmed positive by any tests (including tests conducted during quarantine) with the N501Y mutant strain or relevant virus mutation within a seven-day period, the Government will invoke Cap. 599H to prohibit all passenger flights from that place from landing in Hong Kong, and will specify that relevant place as an extremely high-risk place (i.e. the existing Group A specified place) under Cap. 599H to restrict persons who have stayed in that place for more than two hours from boarding passenger flights for Hong Kong, so as to stop persons from the relevant place from travelling to Hong Kong via transit.”

A country ban is imposed if 5 people from the place arrive in HK with the variant within 7 days

Thus, even if only the four are deemed to have been found with the mutant virus on arrival test, it would take only one more passenger testing positive for the variant within the next six days for all flights from Indonesia to be suspended.

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Meanwhile, the ban on the Indonesian flag carrier Garuda, which takes effect from Jun 22 to July 5, is the second within the month. It was earlier suspended from Jun 2 to 15, after it flew in four infected passengers, three of whom carried the mutated virus.

Another flight from Jakarta, CX 798, is still suspended after three of its passengers tested positive for Covid-19 on arrival on Jun 11. Two of them carried mutated strain of the virus.

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A flight-specific ban is triggered if at least three passengers on board test positive for coronavirus on arrival in Hong Kong.

Today’s new infections raised Hong Kong’s Covid tally to 11,896.

In the past 14 days, a total of 24 cases have been reported, and all of them are imported. It is the 15^th straight day that no new local case was detected in the city.

For the latest updates on the coronavirus situation in Hong Kong, log on to the government’s thematic website, www.coronavirus.gov.hk or through the WhatsApp Helpline, 9617 1823.

 

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