PAL’s June 1 flight for stranded workers still wide open

By Vir B. Lumicao 

Last-minute documents check for the May 26 flight arranged by the Consulate

It’s all systems go for the next arranged airlift to Manila of Filipino workers stranded in Hong Kong due to repeated flight cancellations by Philippine Airlines. The special PAL flight has been set for tomorrow, June 1.

Anyone booked on a PAL flight on later dates can register on the website of the Philippine Overseas Labour Office (www.polo-hk.com) and call them immediately to confirm, or inform Arnel de Luna of the Consulate’s assistance to nationals section no later than noon today, Monday.

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Consul Paulo Saret who has been liaising with the airlines on the special flights for stranded passengers had said in an earlier interview that it did not look like the 150 extra seats allotted for this upcoming flight would be fully used up.

For the earlier flight on May 26 with the same number of allotted seats, Saret said it took the Consulate and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration some time filling up the quota as many of those who had signed up could no longer be contacted.

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This may be because the workers had given up hoping they could still fly with PAL and had switched to other airlines so they could return home and avoid further expenses on food, accommodation, visa extension and rebooking fees.

Starting on Sunday, OWWA staff had begun calling those who had signed up for the Consulate-arranged seat allocation to confirm if they were willing to take up the slot given them. If they declined, the seat was passed on to the next person on the list.

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One of those who just signed up for the Jun 1 flight is Susan T., whose visa is valid only until Jun 2 but has been rebooked by PAL to Jun 15. Susan said she had been hoping to get on a flight home for some time.

“Going home for good, 26 years working here in Hong Kong. Senior na ako, time to retire,” she said.

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On Saturday, she said she was still waiting for a call from OWWA to confirm her slot. She also went to PAL but was reportedly told that the Jun 1 flight could not be confirmed.

When The SUN checked with OWWA’s welfare officer Virsie Tamayao, Susan’s name did not appear on the list because her online registration failed to get through to their system.

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OWWA staff Joszoa Villa later said he had already included Susan on their list, but she still needed to complete the online registration as her personal details there would be used to confirm her booking with PAL. 

Some of the 150 workers who were finally able to leave for home on May 26

The Consulate, through the Department of Foreign Affairs, has interceded for around 420  PAL passengers, most of whom had booked and rebooked their tickets repeatedly since the national flag carrier kept cancelling flights.

When asked for an explanation, a spokesperson for the airline said the cancellations were due to the 1,500 daily arrivals quota at Ninoy Aquino International Airport imposed since Mar 18 by the government’s Inter-Agency Task Force on Covid control.

However, this hardly explains why PAL has been cancelling flights even before the arrival cap was put in place. It also does not explain why other airlines flying the same route do not cancel flights as often as PAL does.

Also among those who will be going home on June 1 is Virginia, a domestic helper who was dismissed on the spot by her employer on Apr 1 without paying her all money due her.

The worker said her employer gave her only $1,000 as final pay as she took the bulk of her salary as “payment” to the employer for her employment termination.

Asked why she was fired, Virginia said she had complained about being overworked and underfed until she began to weaken and suffer from hemoglobin deficiency.

She said she was so confused and eager to go home that she didn’t bother to report her case to the Labour Department. She immediately booked a flight with PAL, only to be cancelled twice, before she was booked on the June 1 special flight.

The worker, who says she is very eager to go home and be with her family, began packing her belongings yesterday in anticipation of her upcoming flight.

Possibly the worst casualty of PAL’s frequent flight cancellations was Ruthlyn Matusalem Estabaya, whose flight was cancelled nine times since January, forcing her to give up and switch airlines.

The last straw came when an anticipated special flight on May 19 did not push through. Ruthlyn got so mad that even when there were talks that a special flight would finally be arranged on May 26 she went ahead and bought a new ticket from Cebu Pacific.

She returned to Manila on Saturday, three days after the arranged PAL flight, but still happy that she was spared of further heartache.

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Migrant support group urges paid rest days for FDWs after Covid-19 jab

By Daisy CL Mandap

Mission says FDWs need the post-jab rest because they do hard physical work

 

A migrant support organization has called on the Hong Kong government to order two rest days for all foreign domestic workers after each coronavirus vaccine, in line with a reported plan to give the same benefit to civil servants.

The call came as another zero infection day was reported today, May 30. This marks the 29^th day that no untraceable local case of Covid-19 has been reported in the city.

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The number of cases in Hong Kong is steady at 11,838.

The Centre for Health Protection officially amended the classification of five recent cases into imported cases after they were earlier described as local, with sources unknown.

All had finished their 21-day hotel quarantine long before they tested positive, but with low viral load and with antibodies, suggesting an old infection.

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Government health experts said yesterday they were infected at least two months before they tested positive during routine tests after leaving quarantine.

Included in these cases are four foreign domestic helpers who tested positive during the second round of compulsory testing for all FDHs. They arrived in Hong Kong on various dates between Feb 20 and Apr 25 this year.

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Two of them are Indonesians aged 29 and 39 years old, respectively; while the other two are Filipinas aged 37 and 46, who were also found to carry the mutant N501Y strain.

The fifth was a Pakistani construction worker aged 43 who arrived from his home country on Mar 16 and was found positive on May 25.

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Meanwhile, a government source quoted by a local newspaper said Hong Kong’s civil servants will receive paid leave for each of their two Covid-19 vaccinations in a new attempt to boost the sluggish inoculation rate.

But the government workers must get the jab before a date to be announced by the administration this week. Those who have already received their shots are also eligible for the time off.

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The news comes amid reports that even among frontliners working for the Health Department, only about a third have received their first vaccine shot.

The low take-up rate for the vaccine has prompted various groups to dangle incentives

Cynthia Tellez, general manager of the Mission for Migrant Workers, said the government must likewise oblige employers to give their FDWs a similar break when they take a vaccine shot.

“This is exactly what they need,” Tellez said. “Instead of forcing migrant workers to get vaccinated, the government should give them incentive.”

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Tellez was referring to a now-aborted plan by the government to force all FDWs to get vaccinated. An outcry from various sectors, including from the consulates of countries that send FDWs to Hong Kong, resulted in the plan being called off.

Tellez said that FDWs, more than office workers, need to be assured that they are entitled to rest days should they experience after-effects from a vaccine since they do more laborious work.

As of the latest government tally, only 986,600 (or 15% of the 6.5 million qualified residents) have received two shots of a coronavirus vaccine. A further 1,342,200 have received their first dose (about 20%), for a combined total of 2,328,700.

Health experts say at least 70% of all qualified residents should get vaccinated before a place attains herd immunity from Covid-19.

The low vaccination rate has prompted the private sector to offer various incentives such as free plane tickets to a $10.8 million flat and cash prizes in a raffle draw, to get more people to go for the jab.

The government, for its part, has dangled the prospects of quarantine-free travel to some countries or more relaxed social distancing regulations to those who are fully vaccinated, or have had two vaccine doses 14 days earlier. 

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No last-minute rush as second round of mandatory testing for FDHs ends

By Vir B. Lumicao 

People came in trickles on last day of the second round of mandatory tests for FDHs

The second round of compulsory coronavirus testing for all 370,000 foreign domestic helpers ended today, May 30, with no last-minute rush at the mobile testing stations set up at their favorite rest-day haunts.

Both helpers and vaccination site staff said the lines were quite long before the testing stations opened at 10am but were gone after just an hour.

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Shortly before noon at the Chater Garden and Edinburgh mobile testing sites in Central, only a handful of workers were observed going to the tents to be swabbed.

This time around, there was only one truck and two testing tents set up in Chater Garden, unlike the past Sunday when there were two vans and four tents. At Edinburgh Place, where even non-FDHs could go for a test, there was also just one truck and four tents.

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Over at Tamar Park in Admiralty, no more mobile testing station was on sight, and only a thin crowd of Filipinos gathered to rest.

At Victoria Park in Causeway Bay, where mostly Indonesian domestic helpers spend their rest days, the same sight greeted an observer. Only a handful of workers strolled up to the two testing tents set up at the far end of the park.

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Lisa, a Chinese health staff supervising the testing at Chater Garden, estimated that only around 100 workers had showed up to be tested by 11:30am.

“Before we started testing at 10am, there were a lot of domestic helpers who were lined up under the shaded tents,” Lisa said.

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“After the early crowd was tested, as you see now, just a few of them are coming one by one or in pairs. Maybe most of them already tested in community testing centers or dropped their samples at various drop sites,” she said.

A larger mobile testing center set up at Edinburgh Place attracted more people, but they were a mix of nationalities that included locals as well as Filipino helpers.

The Edinburgh site tested not only FDHs but others on compulsory testing notice 

Filipino workers belonging to the pro-government Aguinaldo Group estimated that more than 300 people had come to get tested at the Chater Garden and Edinburgh sites, based on the number of water bottles they had given away to those who lined up for the tests.

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Jenny, a member of the group, said people came in trickles, probably because many had themselves tested at community testing centers near where they live.

But it could also be because the second round lasted for 16 days, giving FDHs more time to comply with the order.

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Another reason could be an increase in the number of those who were exempt from the testing order because they had two jabs of a coronavirus vaccine at least 14 days before the end of the notice period, or on May 16.

Free bottled water was handed out to those who showed up for the test

The compulsory testing comes with a threat of a $5,000 fixed fine for those who do not comply with the order.

The initial round of testing was ordered from May 1 to 9 amid fears of a spread of the more infections coronavirus variant, after a Filipina domestic helper who had not left since 2019 was found to carry the strain.

It later turned out that she had caught the South African variant indirectly from an Indian man who was found infected days after he left his hotel quarantine, and had gone to several places in the city.

On May 11, Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced that a second round of compulsory testing of FDHs would be held from May 15 to 30. But at the same time, she announced that a plan to compel FDHs to get vaccinated against Covid-19 had been suspended.

This was after three Filipina DHs were found infected in the initial round. The first two were linked to the Indian returnee, while a third tested positive days after she ended her hotel quarantine. Subsequent tests showed she carried antibodies, suggesting an old infection.

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1 imported case reported as health experts declare end of 4th wave

By Daisy CL Mandap 

Yuen says HK has attained zero local infection in past 28 days

Health officials have today declared the end of the fourth wave of the coronavirus infections in Hong Kong, as they reclassified five cases originally classified as “probably local” to imported, after tests showed the patients had been infected overseas for some time, but were not detected early.

Only one imported case was recorded today, involving a 42-year-old female returnee from Indonesia who tested positive on her 7^th-day sample while in hotel quarantine.

Speaking at a press conference following a meeting at the Centre for Health Protection, government expert Prof. Yuen Kwok-yung said Hong Kong has already met its target of 28 days without any untraceable local cases.

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Yuen said that five cases initially considered local, involving four foreign domestic helpers and a construction worker who were found infected long after they ended their 21-day hotel quarantine, had caught the virus overseas at least two months ago.

Four of the patients tested positive during the second round of compulsory testing for all FDHs. Two of them are Indonesians aged 29 and 39 years old, respectively; while the other two are Filipinas aged 37 and 46, who were also found to carry the mutant N501Y strain.

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The fifth is a 43-year-old Pakistani who works at the Tseung Kwan O-Lam Tin tunnel construction site.

All arrived in Hong Kong from various places between Feb 20 to Apr 25, and tested negative on all Covid-19 tests given them while they were under hotel quarantine.

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After discounting these cases, CHP’s Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan said the last local infection was therefore recorded on Apr 23. 

Yuen said that meant that Hong Kong had already passed the threshold of 28 consecutive days without untraceable local cases, signifying an end to the fourth wave of coronavirus infections.

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 “I do think we actually have achieved it,” said Yuen.

HK should have 80% vaccination rate to head off a 5th wave, says Yuen

But he was quick to warn residents not to bring their guards down, and instead prepare for a possible fifth wave of infections, which he said could come “in just a matter of time.”

To prepare for the likely surge in cases, he said Hong Kong should get its vaccination rate above 80 percent, test anyone with mild symptoms, maintain its rapid contact tracing system, and improve indoor ventilation.

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People should continue to wear masks in public, and incoming travelers should be fully vaccinated.

But at the same time, he said those who have received two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine should be allowed to move around more freely.

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Schools should be kept open, with those who are vaccinated being allowed to attend face-to-face classes, and those who haven’t had a jab attending online classes.

Restaurants should also be allowed to operate at extended periods, with vaccinated people being allowed to dine in any time. Those who are unvaccinated should only be allowed to eat in during lunchtime, Yuen said.

There should also be no evacuation of vaccinated people if a vertical transmission of the virus is found in a building, he said. But those who chose not to get the jabs should still be sent to quarantine.

Yuen said the fourth wave could have ended sooner than the six months that it lasted had specific counter-measures been put in place at crucial times.

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6 Filipinas, 4 Indians held in sale of unlicensed alcohol in Central alley

By Daisy CL Mandap 

The unlicensed premises is located at 9-13 Li Yuen Street West

A 39-year-old Filipina was arrested early today (May 29) on suspicion of selling and possessing unlicensed alcoholic drinks, and violating anti-epidemic restrictions during a police raid in Fai Man building at 9-13 Li Yuen Street West in Central.

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A police statement said that at the same time, nine customers in the bar, comprising four Indian asylum seekers and five Filipinas who are aged 25 to 46 years old, were held for drinking in premises without a liquor license.

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All the arrested customers were issued a fixed penalty ticket of $5,000 each for violating the gathering ban under Cap 599G of the Prevention and Control of Disease Regulations (Prohibition on Group Gathering).

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The Filipina suspected to be in charge of the premises was also held for violating the Regulations for operating a business that violated anti-epidemic regulation. She was detained for questioning.

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During the operation, the officers seized 150 bottles of wine and two chillers from the raided unit.

In a separate operation, law enforcers reportedly smashed an unlicensed bar on Observatory Court in Tsim Sha Tsui and arrested a 45-year-old local man surnamed Ho and another man who is 44 years old on suspicion of selling and possessing alcoholic drinks without a license. Both have been detained for investigation.

A sisha used for inhaling vaporized tobacco

In another raid, two local men and an Indian woman (35-40 years old) were issued fixed penalty tickets for smoking “sisha” (an instrument used to heat or vaporize tobacco) in a no-smoking area in a bar in Chatham Road South. The 40-year-old operator was detained and will reportedly be prosecuted.

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Together with inspectors from the Department of Health, police also inspected various other restaurants, bars, nightclubs and party rooms in the district, and reminded operators and patrons to strictly abide by the anti-epidemic regulations.

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The police also appealed to the public to strictly abide by the Disease Prevention and Control Ordinance to help reduce the risk of the virus spreading in the community

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