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Hong Kong will pay residents 5000 Hong Kong dollars (about 544 euros) after a positive corona test.

The government hopes to quarantine those who cannot afford a loss of earnings for two weeks.

"We hope this government support will encourage low-income residents who are worried about losing their wages if they have to go to quarantine after a test to report and get tested," said Health Minister Sophia Chan.

The Chinese Special Administrative Region has so far mastered the Covid pandemic comparatively well with 5561 infections and 108 deaths.

Anyone traveling to the city must be quarantined for 14 days.

There are practically no exceptions.

In the past few days, however, the number of infections has skyrocketed.

68 newly infected people were reported on Sunday, compared to just four in the entire previous week.

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Several dozen infections can be traced back to some dance clubs in the city.

Visitors to these facilities are required to be tested by Tuesday.

The increasing number of infections has meant that a planned "travel bubble" with Singapore has been postponed by two weeks.

It should start on Sunday and slowly restart tourism and business travel between the two city-states.

There are also financial incentives for quarantine in other countries

Labor Minister Law Chi-Kwong said that the payment is intended for those who are not entitled to sick pay or continued wages: for example, taxi drivers, self-employed and freelancers.

A means test in advance is not planned, "that only extends the application process".

Random samples of the documents submitted would be carried out in order to avoid misuse.

The Ministry of Labor had previously appealed to the population to handle the applications responsibly.

Elsewhere, too, governments are trying to create a financial incentive to encourage those who cannot afford the associated loss of earnings to take tests and possibly quarantine.

In the state of Victoria in southeast Australia, workers who were not entitled to sickness benefits initially received 300 Australian dollars (185 euros) in the summer as hardship compensation for the waiting time for the result of a test.

Those who tested positive and had to stay at home received an additional $ 1,500.

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In Great Britain there has been a one-off payment of 500 pounds (560 euros) since the autumn - also for a very limited group.

"We have to ensure that no one has the feeling that they have to pay a high personal price for participating in the community health task," said Torsten Bell, managing director of the Resolution Foundation think tank, recently describing the problem.

The advance in Hong Kong, however, is not going far enough, warned David Webb, an analyst and activist for investor rights in the city, who had proposed a compensation payment for those infected last week.

"It is debatable to exclude salaried employees entitled to sick pay from paying, but offering it to everyone makes it straightforward and the overall cost is negligible compared to other approaches." To provide earnings thresholds.

Intentional infections are unlikely

The UK example shows the downside of bureaucratic hurdles.

So far, almost no payouts have taken place within the program, Bell told Parliament's committee on labor and pensions last week.

Little is known about the program.

Neither in test centers nor in the contact establishment would be pointed out.

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In addition, an abundance of forms had to be filled out for the application.

Most of those affected will therefore, at best, receive the statutory sick pay of £ 95.85 per week if they are eligible.

Hong Kong's Webb believes that the risk of people deliberately infecting themselves in order to receive payment is negligible.

Around one in 150,000 inhabitants is currently infected every day, making it difficult to find someone who is sick to be infected, even if you want to risk your health and life for the payment.

He advocated extending the payment to those who have come into contact with an infected person in order to give them an incentive to quarantine.

In addition, it makes more sense to switch to a daily payment in order to adequately support self-employed who fall ill with Covid-19 and may be absent for a long time.