No new Covid-19 case in HK for 2nd straight day

By The SUN 

 It is the first time in nearly a year that HK recorded zero infection for 2nd day straight day

Hong Kong’s Centre for Health Protection has announced that no new confirmed cases of coronavirus infections were reported today, May 28.

The total Covid-19 tally in Hong Kong remains at 11,837.

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It is the first time in nearly a year that no new infections were reported for the second straight day.

Meanwhile, the Labour Department has reminded all foreign domestic workers that they have only until Sunday, May 30, to comply with the second round of compulsory testing notice for Covid-19.

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In a statement issued today, the Department said it was appealing to all FDHs to get tested as soon as possible and avoid last-minute rush.

It also called on them to get vaccinated “to protect their own health and the health of their employees’ families and others.”

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The second round of compulsory testing for FDHs began on May 15, just six days after the initial round ended. A total of four infections, involving two Indonesians and two Filipinas, have been uncovered in the ongoing mandatory testing for FDHs. In the first round, three Filipina DHs, all found to carry the mutated variant, N501Y, were detected.]

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As in all other compulsory testing notices, all those who have received two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine for at least 14 days are exempt.

Labour’s statement also warned that the government will seriously enforce compliance with the CTN, saying anyone who fails to get tested within the prescribed period commits an offence and may be fined a fixed penalty of $5,000.

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Anyone issued with a fixed penalty ticket will also be ordered to comply with the CTN within a specified period. Those who resist the second order could be made to pay a further fine of $25,000 and jailed for six months.

All FDHs who got tested should keep the SMS notification of their test result for checking by law enforces.

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If they are exempted because of full vaccination they should either download their electronic vaccination records, save it on their mobile phones, or bring along printouts.

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Lam Tin suicide not a Filipina DH, police says

By Daisy CL Mandap 

The victim lies lifeless on the pavement.

The woman who was reported to have jumped to her death in Lam Tin is not a Filipina domestic helper, a police spokeswoman said Thursday night.

She made the clarification on being told that people who live in Lei Ting House, Lei On Court in Lam Tin had been spreading the story that the apparent suicide victim was a Filipina DH, and that her employer had been trying to keep her death a secret.

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According to the police, the woman involved was a 34-year-old Chinese woman named Y. Huang. Someone alerted police at about 4:48pm on Wednesday about finding the woman unconscious on the platform below the building where she lived.

Paramedics who were sent to the scene found the woman unconscious and rushed her to United Christian Hospital where she was declared dead. No other details were given.

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A Filipina domestic worker who claims to live in the same apartment block had circulated a photo of a woman wearing denim pants and black shirt lying on a concrete pavement, with her head covered by a crying emoticon.

The Filipina named Mylene said she took the photo from a window of her employer’s flat in the same block. She said the victim lived in a flat on the 21^st floor of the building.

Picture of the victim, taken by a neighbor,

Mylene also said the information that the deceased was a Filipina DH came from an Indonesian helper who lives next door the victims.

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“Kagabi daw twice sya (Indonesian) pinuntahan sa flat nila ng police at nagtanong. Kaunting interview daw kung kilala niya yung namatay na helper, kung may mga narinig ba daw na ingay,” Mylene said, referring to her Indonesian informant.

(Last night the police went to their house twice to ask questions. They did a bit of interview, asking questions like if she knew the dead helper, if she heard any noise).

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 "Yun din ang sabi ng anak ng amo ko, na Pinay yung namatay,” she insisted, even after being told that her information was all wrong. (That was what my employer’s son also said, that the one who died was a Filipina).

This was not the first time that members of the community had spread wrong information about  suicide victims being Filipina DHs.

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In the latest case, a woman who fell to her death in Ma On Shan in January this year was widely reported in local media to be a Filipina DH. She was not. Police said it was a local woman who was mentally ill.

But the story that caused the biggest stir was that of a woman who was found crumpled to death and bleeding on the third-floor patio of posh Robinson Place in Mid-Levels on Dec 13, 2019.

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For the whole day, a number of Filipina netizens went to the town with the story that the victim was a Filipina DH who had worked for an Indian employer in Tower 2 of the building.

Quoting other Filipinas who claimed to work in the same block, they vehemently denied that it was a suicide, and insisted the victim was cleaning windows when she fell to her death.

The netizens suddenly clammed up when police revealed that the suicide victim was a 66-year-old Chinese woman who jumped off a flat on a high floor of the residential block.

Those who are feeling depressed are advised to seek professional help immediately, either through the Philippine Consulate or NGOs like the Mission for Migrant Workers. They can also call the 24-hour multi-lingual hotline of the Samaritans at 28960000. 

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50k free air tickets, ‘cruise to nowhere’ offered to push vaccination

By The SUN

50K free air tickets will be raffled off to vaccinated residents

Get vaccinated, win one of free 50,000 air tickets on offer.

The Hong Kong Airport Authority made this pitch today to encourage the city’s residents to get vaccine jabs.

Cruise lines are also preparing to launch “cruises to nowhere” for Hong Kong residents by end-July at the earliest, with inoculation against Covid-19 a prerequisite for both passengers and crew before they could come aboard.

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Airport Authority chairman Jack So said the AA will raffle off 50,000 air tickets to vaccinated Hong Kong residents and 10,000 to airport employees.

He said the vaccination-tied ticket giveaway should give the aviation industry a needed shot in the arm, and encourage more people to take the jab.

“We hope that air traffic will resume as soon as possible. Vaccination of more people is an important part of the early recovery of the aviation industry,” he said.

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We have specifically allocated additional resources to encourage AA staff to vaccinate, hoping to take the lead,” So said.

He said to win one of the 50,000 air tickets on offer, a vaccinated Hong Kong resident must join the lucky draw by the end of September, when all 29 community vaccination centres are due to close.

The AA will also buy an additional 1,000 air tickets that it will give away in the form of a lottery to its employees who will have been vaccinated within the same period.

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But So did not specify the destinations of the free air tickets, or whether a resident could have just one of two vaccine doses to qualify for the lucky draw.

The AA said it is still finalizing details with the airlines.

Cruises to nowhere are expected to start by end of July

Meanwhile, Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Edward Yau said yesterday that cruise lines may resume “cruises to nowhere” (CTN), on condition that they strictly comply with health precautionary measures designed for such a travel.

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Resuming the short sea journeys that do not stop at any foreign port is meant to pave the way for the gradual resumption of cruise travel which has been for more than 15 months, Yau said.

“CTN itineraries underpinned by health control safeguards will offer an additional safe vacation option for the community as from the coming summer,” he added.

However, a health expert has warned that such cruises could spread the virus as it would be difficult to detect any infections on board during the short journeys planned.

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Dr Leung Chi-chiu said the short cruises would only be truly safe if the city achieves a high vaccination rate.

If any passengers catch Covid-19 on the ships they could easily spread the virus within the community if not enough residents here are vaccinated, Leung said.

The health precautionary measures that have been worked out with relevant bureaus and departments, as well as the cruise trade, include:  

• All incoming crew members must comply with prevailing quarantine and testing requirements for travelers entering Hong Kong;
• All crew members must be fully inoculated with Covid-19 vaccines recognized by health authorities before the start of a cruise journey, except for those not suitable to do so with valid medical proof. Non-local crews who have not been vaccinated before coming here may get free jabs in Hong Kong. But they have to be fully vaccinated before they can serve on a cruise journey.
• All fully vaccinated crew members are still required to undergo a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) nucleic acid test shoreside and obtain a negative result every 14 days. Crew members who are not suitable for vaccination due to medical grounds must undergo a PCR nucleic acid test shoreside and obtain a negative result, as well as undergo every three days testing at on-board facilities and obtain a negative result;
• All passengers must be fully vaccinated, except for those not suitable to do so with medical proof or aged below 16, before a cruise journey begins;
• All passengers have to do a PCR nucleic acid test within 48 hours before boarding and obtain a negative result;
• Cruise lines are required to adopt a maximum 50% passenger capacity on a cruise ship, comply with the respective sets of hygiene, social distancing and contact tracing measures for various similar premises and facilities in force under the Prevention and Control of Disease Regulation (Cap. 599F), and promulgate contact tracing mechanism for journeys; and 
• Passengers are required to use the “LeaveHomeSafe” mobile application to scan the QR code of the cruise ship before boarding. After boarding, they must also follow the social distancing and contact tracing mechanism executed by the cruise lines.
  
  

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No new Covid-19 cases as 12 patients with variant linked to Filipino DH

By Daisy CL Mandap 

It has been 7 months since HK recorded zero infection for the day

No new local or imported  case of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) was reported today, May 27, the first time this happened since October 14 last year, when a strong typhoon disrupted testing services across Hong Kong.

It comes five weeks after a flight ban was imposed on three countries where the most number of imported cases had been coming from in the past few months: India, Pakistan and the Philippines.

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However, the city is not out of the woods yet, as a total of 23 confirmed cases have been reported in the past 14 days, five of which were local cases with unknown sources, and one classified as possibly local.

One case recently reported as preliminary positive was today declared not a Covid-19 infection. The 61-year-old nurse who worked parttime at a vaccination center was found to have a strain of the Sinovac vaccine she helped administer, and not the coronavirus.

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Meanwhile, the Centre for Health Protection has linked 12 cases with the South African variant to a 28-year-old Filipino domestic helper (case no 11544) who had stayed at Ramada Grand Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui at the same time as two other patients.

The CHP said genetic sequencing analysis of an Indian man who had flown in from Dubai (11643) and an Indonesian domestic helper (11550) showed they were both epidemiologically linked to the Filipino DH.

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All three had stayed at the Ramada Grand Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui on the same floor on  overlapping dates, bolstering the theory of virus transmission during hotel quarantine.

Experts who studied several cases of infections that were detected after the 21-day quarantine have said that environmental contamination could have occurred in the hotels’ narrow corridors or the S hooks used to hang food rations with.

The variant spread is now known to have started at Ramada Hotel in TST

The 28-year-old Filipino DH flew in aboard Cebu Pacific flight 5J 272 on Mar 25 and was found infected with the mutant variant on his 12^th day sample and confirmed as a positive case on Apr 8.

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Coincidentally, four Filipina DHs who took the same flight from Manila but stayed in different hotels for their quarantine were also found to carry the variant on the same day.

The 38-year-old Indonesian DH, on the other hand, arrived in Hong Kong from Jakarta on Mar 19. She was also found with the variant on Apr 8. Of four Indonesian DHs reported as Covid-19 positive that day, she was the only one found to carry the variant.

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The second linked case, the 29-year-old Indian man initially listed as the first local case of variant infection in Hong Kong, flew in on Mar 19 and ended his quarantine at Ramada Grand on Apr 8, when the two other patients tested positive.

After ending his quarantine, he moved in with his Filipina girlfriend in a flat in Jordan, and went around various places in Hong Kong until he was found infected on Apr 17 when he underwent testing prior to his return to Dubai.

The Indian man passed on the variant to his girlfriend (11672), and indirectly to three Filipina domestic helpers (11773, 11792 and 11793), the 10-month-old ward of one of the helpers (11774) and her employer (11797). 

Also infected were the girlfriend’s mother (11800), her elder brother (11815) the brother’s girlfriend (11816) and 4-month-old nephew (11825).

As a result of these findings, all cases linked to the index patient in the cluster (the Filipino DH) have now been classified as imported cases.

The CHP said in its statement that all investigations and contact tracing on other confirmed cases announced earlier are ongoing.

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Filipina DH jailed 10 weeks for stealing $13.5k from employer’s daughters

By Vir B. Lumicao 

The theft happened in the employer's house in posh Robinson Place in Mid-Levels

A 34-year-old Filipina domestic helper has been ordered jailed for 10 weeks after she admitted stealing $13,500 from her employers’ two daughters in their flat at 70 Robinson Road, Central.

Grace Alla, a mother of two girls, pleaded guilty to one count of theft when she appeared today, May 27, before Eastern Court Magistrate Cheang Kei-hong.

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Alla allegedly stole $2,000 belonging to the employers’ 17-year-old daughter and another $11,500 from their 16-year-old daughter between mid-March and May 3. The family, including a young son, lived in the flat with Alla, who they hired last October.

According to the prosecution, the elder sister put $2,000 in an unlocked safe in her bedroom drawer in mid-March and made sure of the amount. On Apr 17, her younger sister placed $12,480 in another unlocked safe in her bedroom drawer and checked the amount, too.

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No one entered the bedrooms during the period but the helper and their family members.

On May 3, the elder daughter discovered her $2,000 missing from the first safe, while her sister found out $11,500 of her money was gone. They reported the incident to their mother, who asked the helper.

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The defendant admitted she took the money and signed a letter of agreement with the victims’ mother that she took $13,000 from the two daughters.

The defendant was later fired and reported to the police on May 5. She was arrested and  during interrogation claimed that she stole only $8,000.

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The victims asked to be repaid but the defendant said she had no money.

The defense lawyer said the defendant came to Hong Kong to work as a domestic helper in 2018. She is married, with her husband looking after their two young daughters in the Philippines.

The lawyer said Alla was remorseful.

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In sentencing, the magistrate told Alla her offense was a serious breach of trust.

Alla was the second Filipina helper to be sent to jail this week in Eastern Court for theft. On Tuesday, Jonavel Bilolo, 32, was jailed for 10 months after admitting she stole nearly $173,000 from her employer on Mount Davis, Western District, between Apr and May this year.

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