Real-name registration for SIM cards to start March next year

By The SUN              

 

Annoyed by calls from unknown people offering all sorts of services and products, from dodgy investment schemes to suspicious loan offers? This soon-to-be implemented law could put an end to all those pesky calls or text messages.

A statement released by the government today, June 1, said a new law that will make it mandatory for telephone companies to start registering the real names of people buying SIM (subscriber identity module) cards will take effect starting in September this year.

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However, real-name registration for all SIM card users will start only on Mar 1 next year, to give time to telephone companies to set up the registration system. Registration is required for all users of stored-value SIM cards and those with service plans.

Those who use stored-value cards will have until Feb 23, 2023 to register their real names with their service provider while those on monthly service plans need not re-register their personal details with their service provider.

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However, they will have to register their names and other personal information if they switch to another telephone company or get a new number.

Mobile phone companies will be given six months to set up the registration system for all their customers using person-to-person calling service starting in September this year.

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The statement said the measure seeks to prevent and detect crimes related to the use of pre-paid SIM cards. It comes after a seven-week public consultation that started in January this year showed that over 70% of stakeholders support the registration program.

But after reviewing suggestions and comments by the respondents, the government said it further refined the bill to include a relaxation of the cap on the number of SIM cards that each individual or business users could register.

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For individual users, the limit has been increased to 10 cards, instead of the previous three; while registered businesses can register up to 25 cards.

 For details of the Registration Programme, please visit the website: www.cedb.gov.hk/ccib/en/legco-business/document/LegCo%20Brief%20SIM_EN.pdf.

 

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Flight ban on Philippines stays

By Daisy CL Mandap 

Flights coming from the Philippines can only bring in cargo and not passengers

The result of Hong Kong’s periodic review of boarding and quarantine requirements for travelers from overseas has just been released, showing no changes for those arriving from countries specified as “extremely high risk,” including the Philippines.

This means that no travelers who had stayed for at least two hours from countries in the Group A1 category will still be barred from entering Hong Kong. Apart from the Philippines, the countries on flight ban status are India, Nepal, Pakistan, Brazil and South Africa.

The news should come as a big disappointment to an estimated 3,000 Filipino migrant workers who have been waiting to fly to Hong Kong to start on their jobs since the flight ban was imposed on Apr 20.

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It should be frustrating as well to about 250,000 other Filipinos in Hong Kong who are unable to fly home for a vacation or emergency reasons because of the uncertainty of when they could return to their jobs and homes here.

The restrictions are extremely harsh for those who intend to fly in from the countries in the A1 category. Anyone who had stayed in any of these countries for at least two hours, within 21 days prior to the intended flight date, will not be allowed to board a flight for Hong Kong.

Those who had exceeded the 21-day requirement will be relegated to A1 status, meaning they will have to spend 21 days in hotel quarantine, whether vaccinated or not.

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The press statement issued by the government late on Monday only indicated the relaxation of travel restrictions for the United Kingdom, which has been upgraded to the Group B (high risk) from A2 status (very high risk).

This means that from Jun 4, all fully vaccinated travelers from the UK, like others in the Group B category such as Indonesia, will now be required to quarantine in a hotel for 14 days, from the previous 21 days.

All unvaccinated travelers from this designated category will still have to spend 21 days in hotel quarantine.

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But vaccinated or not, they will still have to submit a negative test result obtained within 72 hours before boarding. In addition, those who spent only 14 days in quarantine will be subjected to three tests during their two-week quarantine, followed by a seven-day self-monitoring period, as well as compulsory testing on the 16th and 19th day of arrival at Hong Kong.

Only Ireland remains in the A2 status, meaning travelers from this country will have to quarantine for 21 days in a hotel, vaccinated or not.

At the same time, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam were relegated to Group B, with the government statement saying that this was because “of the persistent unstable epidemic situation in the region, as well as the prevalent transmission of cases involving the more transmissible and potentially more serious mutant virus strains.”

3 Asian countries are now down to B status because of 'unstable' Covid situation in region

As for the UK, which was moved up to Group A2 status from A1 only on May 7, the easing of restrictions was said to be due to the country’s rising vaccination rate and the absence of new imported cases from among its travelers.

"The government will continue to closely monitor the epidemic situation of various places, the prevalence of new virus variants, vaccination progress, and changes in the volume of cross-boundary passenger traffic, and will adjust the boarding and compulsory quarantine requirements for persons arriving at Hong Kong from relevant places as the situation warrants," the statement said.

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With Hong Kong struggling to remain infection-free, meaning, not having any local case with unknown sources, lifting the flight ban on countries it considers as extremely high risk is not likely to come anytime soon.

While the Philippines has not experienced the unprecedented surge in cases as in India, where the total tally in the past two weeks was an incredible 3.08 million, Filipinos make up the biggest number of patients found to have brought in the highly feared coronavirus variant into Hong Kong.

The Philippines’ two-week tally is 79,664 cases while Indonesia, in comparison, has nearly the same number, at 76,291 cases. However, most Indonesians who test positive for Covid-19 after arriving in Hong Kong do not carry the variant, which experts say could be 70 times more infectious than the common strain.

South Africa, where the variant carried by most infected Filipinos was first found, is now down to a two-week tally of 45,342 cases. But Brazil, another earlier source of the mutated virus, still has a raging infection going on, with its 14-day total remaining at 887,877 cases.

Details on the grouping of specified places and their respective boarding and compulsory quarantine requirements can be found at www.coronavirus.gov.hk/eng/high-risk-places.html.

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HK may ban unvaccinated people from certain places in case of 5th wave

By The SUN 

Hong Kong officials step up the campaign to get more people to take a Covid jab (RTHK photo)

Officials led by Chief Executive Carrie Lam have renewed calls for more people to get inoculated, warning that those who haven’t gone for a coronavirus jab may be barred from restaurants, schools and other venues should a fifth wave of Covid-19 hits Hong Kong.

Speaking at a press conference earlier today, May 31, CE Lam said the government needs to be fair to those who have done their part in helping keeping the city safe from the coronavirus.

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“I hope people who have yet to take the jab will also realize that we need them to participate in order to be fair to all those who have taken a jab hitherto, so that all of us together could reach a higher level of vaccination rate that would keep the city safe,” she said.

But she was quick to add that people who are “medically unfit” to get vaccinated will be exempted from the disparate treatment.

Health Secretary Sophia Chan said the possible restriction could apply not just in restaurants and schools but also student hostels, construction sites, cinemas, libraries and performance and sports venues. 

She also cited the benefits from the so-called “vaccine bubble” where social distancing measures are  relaxed for inoculated people and previously closed businesses can now operate for longer hours.

 

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Under the so-called "travel bubble," vaccinated people will also be able to cross borders more easily when other countries open up for travel.

Lam said the next three months will be crucial to the government’s campaign to fight the coronavirus epidemic if Hong Kong has to revive its economy and return to normal.

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Lam, who led her officials at the launch of the “Early Vaccination for All” initiative, took off her mask before the media for the first time in several months as she affirmed her government’s determination to halt the spread of the virus.

She noted that the last time a local case was identified was on Apr 25, or 37 days ago. But she said health authorities are investigating a preliminary positive case that shows it is difficult to prevent local infection. She said this calls for boosting the vaccination rate.

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“We seek to substantially boost the inoculation rate to create effective immunity in the community so that we can return to normality as soon as possible. We hope that before September, we’ll be able to get results,” the Chief Executive said.

“In other words, we can substantially increase the vaccination rate so that with the arrival of the fifth wave of the epidemic, different sectors of the community will not be affected, and we’ll have a million children in school and we hope by September they will be able return to classrooms.”

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The Chief Executive said new directions in fighting the epidemic that she announced on Apr 12 are still in force to keep the situation stable as various sectors return to business.

First, the government will remain vigilant and continue to impose certain measures to prevent the entry of imported cases, Lam said.

CE Lam says vaccination en masse is the only way out of the epidemic (File)

“The only solution to effectively find a way out of the epidemic is to appeal to the public to be inoculated en masse so as to create an effective safeguard,” Lam said, citing the significant drop in cases and deaths in countries with high inoculation rates.

The CE said she had written to hundreds of property developers and other companies to enlist them in offering perks to the public to encourage them to get inoculated to raise the city’s vaccination rate within the next three months.

Among those that have responded to the call is the MTR Corporation, which separately announced a plan to give away 500 annual train tickets with unlimited rides as an incentive to vaccinated residents.

The lucky ones who will be picked in the lucky draw can take unlimited MTR rides in one year, but the privilege will not be extended to the Airport Express, MTR feeder buses, the long trips to Lo Wu or Lok Ma Chau, and first-class fares. Details will be announced later.

Earlier, property developers announced a lottery aimed at boosting the vaccination rate, where the grand prize is a flat worth $10.8 million. Twenty cards topped up with $100,000 each will also be given away to lucky vaccinated applicants.

Secretary for the Civil Service Patrick Nip also confirmed plans to give government employees a one-day vaccine holiday for each Covid jab that they take.

Dr Thomas Tsang, former Centre for Health Protection comptroller and a government advisor on Covid-19 vaccines, assured people about the effects of the vaccines, saying there is public misunderstanding about why some people died after vaccination.

He said an expert committee comprising medical experts and university professors who looked into 20 post-vaccination deaths said the fatalities mostly suffered cardiac arrest.

In fact, he said about 120 people die every day in Hong Kong hospitals, but their deaths are not reported as the media focus more on the effects of the vaccines.     

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Two DHs among HK’s four new imported Covid-19 cases

By Vir B. Lumicao

One of the 2 domestic helpers who tested positive today flew in from the Netherlands

Hong Kong health officials reported four new confirmed coronavirus cases today, May 31. All of them are imported, and included two domestic helpers.

The Centre for Health Protection is also investigating the case of a male police officer, 35, who tested preliminary positive. If confirmed, he would be Hong Kong’s first local case in more than a week.

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The new cases took the number of Covid-19 patients in Hong Kong to 11,842.

A Department of Health staff said one of the FDHs arrived on May 21 from Indonesia on Cathay Pacific flight CX798.

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She tested negative on arrival at the airport but was found infected on her seventh day in hotel quarantine.  Tests are still being carried out to determine if she has the mutated strain of the virus.

The other helper, aged 31, whose nationality was not determined, flew in from the Netherlands on KLM flight KL819 on May 29, the DH staff said.

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Another imported case involves a 38-year-old woman who arrived from Seoul on a Korean Airlines KE607 flight on May 29 and was confirmed to have the virus the next day.

The fourth is a 40-year-old Indian man who arrived on Apr 18 from his home country but was found positive of Covid-19 in a hospital where he was confined due to underlying illness, the DH staff said.

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The man was a travel companion of a 53-year-old Indian woman who was confirmed to have Covid-19 on Apr 19.

On his arrival in Hong Kong, the man was taken to Penny’s Bay Quarantine Centre where he stayed from April 18 to May 9 as a close contact of the female passenger. All tests done on him during this period turned out negative.

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After quarantine, the unemployed man moved to his flat at Shing Fu House, Kwai Shing East Estate, Kwai Chung. He went for a test at a community testing center on May 13 and the result was negative.

On May 29 he was admitted to Princess Margaret Hospital for an underlying illness. A pre-admission test for Covid-19 done on him had an inconclusive result. But later he tested positive for antibodies, suggesting an old infection.

The CHP has issued a compulsory testing notice for his residential block in Kwai Chung as a safety measure. Those who had stayed in the building for at least two hours should undergo testing by June 2.

The officer who tested preliminary positive works at the Wan Chai Police HQ

Meanwhile, the officer who tested preliminary positive works at the Wan Chai Police Headquarters on Arsenal Street and lives at Wai Mei House at Yau Mei Court, Yau Tong.

The CHP said the officer developed sore throat, cough and runny nose on May 28 and visited a private medical practitioner on May 29. His deep throat saliva sample taken on May 30 tested positive.

CHP is conducting further investigations and contact tracing. As a safety precaution, the Wanchai police headquarters and Wai Mei House will be included in the compulsory testing notice today. People who were in those buildings are required to undergo testing by June 2.

The CHP said a total of 13 cases have been reported in the past 14 days, from May 17 to 30, all of them imported cases.

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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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