Hong Kong lists 15 areas including the United States as high-risk areas and only allows Hong Kong residents who have completed vaccination to enter

  [Global Times Special Correspondent in Hong Kong Ye Lan] In view of the development of the global epidemic, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government announced on the 16th to tighten immigration measures.

  The SAR government announced that it will tighten boarding, quarantine and testing requirements for people arriving in Hong Kong from 16 overseas regions, including Bangladesh, Cambodia, France, Greece, Iran, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Spain, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, UAE and the United States.

The 15 areas mentioned above will be upgraded from the medium-risk areas in Group B to the high-risk areas in Group A. Only Hong Kong residents who have completed the vaccination will be allowed to enter, and they will be subject to mandatory quarantine at designated quarantine hotels for 21 days, during which they will undergo multiple tests.

The SAR government has raised Australia from a group C low-risk area to a medium-risk area, allowing Hong Kong residents who have not completed the vaccination to enter, but they must be quarantined for 21 days; if they are the immigrants who have completed the vaccination, it can be shortened to 14 days. If the antibody is positive, the quarantine period can be shortened to 7 days, plus 7 days of self-monitoring.

A government spokesperson said that the global new crown pneumonia epidemic is seriously threatened by the delta mutant strain. The number of confirmed diagnoses in many areas has soared in a short period of time. Even after large-scale vaccination, the spread of the virus is still recurring, causing local epidemic prevention and control. A major challenge.

The SAR government therefore decided to upgrade the risk groups of 16 overseas regions with severe epidemics in order to strictly guard the anti-epidemic barrier of Hong Kong against imports.

  According to a report by Toutiao Daily on the 16th, a 38-year-old foreign domestic helper who came to Hong Kong from the United States a few days ago took blood samples from the United States and sent them to the Hong Kong Laboratory. After obtaining a positive antibody result, the hotel quarantine period was shortened to 7 days, and finally after leaving the community. Confirmed.

The Scientific Committee on Vaccine Preventable Diseases and the Scientific Committee on New Discoveries and Animal Infectious Diseases under the Hong Kong Center for Health Protection held a joint meeting on the 16th.

Xu Shuchang, one of the chairmen of the Science Committee, said that the committee recommends tightening quarantine arrangements.

From April to August 15th, there have been 52 imported cases in Hong Kong who had been vaccinated with two doses and still infected, 88% of which had the mutant virus; only 88% of these patients could be diagnosed within 7 days of arrival in Hong Kong Infected, there are 6 remaining cases. The patients were diagnosed on the 8th to 13th days after arriving in Hong Kong, including foreign domestic helpers who had recently arrived in Hong Kong from the United States.

Therefore, it is reasonable to estimate that if the quarantine period of arrival for people who have been vaccinated is set at 7 days, 12% of imported cases will be missed.