London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 30, 2025

Omicron ‘must be kept out of community’; Hong Kong logs 3 Covid-19 cases

Omicron ‘must be kept out of community’; Hong Kong logs 3 Covid-19 cases

Government adviser David Hui says quarantine hotels should step up their efforts to prevent cross infections, while infectious disease expert Leung Chi-chiu says the government should discourage travel.

Hong Kong’s quarantine hotels must cut off any possible avenues of coronavirus transmission in light of the spread of the new Omicron variant, a local health expert has said, while another has cautioned against unnecessary travel during the coming holiday season.

First detected in Botswana, southern Africa, the Omicron variant has since cropped up in South Africa, Israel, Germany, Italy and Britain, with Hong Kong also recording two cases picked up in a quarantine hotel earlier this month.

However, experts were divided on Sunday as to whether more travel restrictions were needed to prevent the variant from slipping into the local community.

“Hong Kong’s long hotel quarantine means we probably don’t have such a big problem,” said government pandemic adviser Professor David Hui Shu-cheong, who pointed to an analysis of imported cases by the Department of Health that found 92 per cent were detected by the first week of isolation and 99 per cent by the second.

“The key is there cannot be transmission within the quarantine hotels, there really need to be precautions against airborne transmission.”

More air filters should be installed in corridors, and patients should not open their doors if their windows were ajar to prevent air currents sweeping virus-bearing respiratory droplets into hallways, he said.

Governments across the world have responded to the new B.1.1.529 variant – first reported to the World Health Organization on November 24 by South Africa – by imposing stricter border controls, including outright travel bans against several countries on the continent.

Israel on Saturday went one step further, banning the entry of visitors from all countries for two weeks.

Hong Kong has already implemented a total ban on the entry of non-Hong Kong residents from eight African countries – South Africa, Botswana, eSwatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Malawi, Namibia and Zimbabwe.

Residents returning to the city from eight countries must spend their first week of quarantine at Penny’s Bay (pictured).


Starting Sunday, city residents arriving from those countries must serve their first week of quarantine at the government-run Penny’s Bay facility – where they will be subject to daily testing – before completing their remaining 14 days in a designated hotel.

Hui said serving all three weeks of quarantine in the government facility could become necessary if the Omicron variant became the predominant strain globally, but at this stage further restrictions were not needed.

However, infectious disease expert Dr Leung Chi-chiu called for arrivals from the eight countries to be quarantined in Penny’s Bay for the entire 21-day stretch, noting the second Omicron case in Hong Kong was the product of hotel cross infection.

In addition to reviewing infection-control measures in designated hotels, Leung said health authorities might need to ban flights from other countries with surging variant cases.

He also urged the government to deter international travel, particularly during the coming Christmas season, by warning residents they could be stranded overseas if they chose to leave.

“Right now our measures are quite relaxed, but those who don’t actually need to travel should avoid doing so as there could be a chance we need to suddenly ban flights,” he said.

Leung added: “With international transport and travel resuming, we cannot rule out there could be a spread of the Omicron variant to other areas as well, but because the caseloads elsewhere might be quite high, sequencing may have slowed down.”

Quarantine exemptions for pilots would also have to be reviewed as they were now the highest-risk group entering the city from abroad, Leung said.

“Hong Kong needs to prevent the Omicron variant from entering the community or it could scuttle the chances of the border reopening with mainland China,” he added.

But Hui maintained the Omicron variant – named after the Greek letter – would not disrupt recent progress on reopening as long as cases could be caught at the border.

Hong Kong confirmed three new imported infections on Sunday, from Canada, Nigeria and Qatar. Two of the cases involved mutated variants, but test results were still pending.

The new cases brought the city’s tally to 12,427, with 213 related deaths.

Meanwhile, Executive Council convenor Bernard Chan said he believed the stubbornly low vaccination rate among the city’s elderly would start to improve if the government imposed rules requiring residents to have at least one jab to enter venues such as restaurants.

At the moment, less than 20 per cent of Hongkongers aged 80 and above have had at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine.

“If more places are included in the vaccine bubble, then I believe the elderly will get vaccinated. They just don’t have any motivation to do it right now,” Chan said. “But if you keep waiting for them to take the initiative, then it will never happen.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
UK and Vietnam Sign Landmark Migration Deal to Fast-Track Returns of Irregular Arrivals
UK Drug-Pricing Overhaul Essential for Life-Sciences Ambition, Says GSK Chief
Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie Temporarily Leave the UK Amid Their Parents’ Royal Fallout
UK Weighs Early End to Oil and Gas Windfall Tax as Reeves Seeks Investment Commitments
UK Retail Inflation Slows as Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since Spring
Next Raises Full-Year Profit Guidance After Strong Third-Quarter Performance
Reform UK’s Lee Anderson Admits to 'Gaming' Benefits System While Advocating Crackdown
United States and South Korea Conclude Major Trade Accord Worth $350 Billion
Hurricane Melissa Strikes Cuba After Devastating Jamaica With Record Winds
Vice President Vance to Headline Turning Point USA Campus Event at Ole Miss
U.S. Targets Maritime Narco-Routes While Border Pressure to Mexico Remains Limited
Bill Gates at 70: “I Have a Real Fear of Artificial Intelligence – and Also Regret”
Elon Musk Unveils Grokipedia: An AI-Driven Alternative to Wikipedia
Saudi Arabia Unveils Vision for First-Ever "Sky Stadium" Suspended Over Desert Floor
Amazon Announces 14 000 Corporate Job Cuts as AI Investment Accelerates
UK Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since March, Food Leads the Decline
London Stock Exchange Group ADR (LNSTY) Earns Zacks Rank #1 Upgrade on Rising Earnings Outlook
Soap legend Tony Adams, long-time star of Crossroads, dies at 84
Rachel Reeves Signals Tax Increases Ahead of November Budget Amid £20-50 Billion Fiscal Gap
NatWest Past Gains of 314% Spotlight Opportunity — But Some Key Risks Remain
UK Launches ‘Golden Age’ of Nuclear with £38 Billion Sizewell C Approval
UK Announces £1.08 Billion Budget for Offshore Wind Auction to Boost 2030 Capacity
UK Seeks Steel Alliance with EU and US to Counter China’s Over-Capacity
UK Struggles to Balance China as Both Strategic Threat and Valued Trading Partner
Argentina’s Markets Surge as Milei’s Party Secures Major Win
British Journalist Sami Hamdi Detained by U.S. Authorities After Visa Revocation Amid Israel-Gaza Commentary
King Charles Unveils UK’s First LGBT+ Armed Forces Memorial at National Memorial Arboretum
At ninety-two and re-elected: Paul Biya secures eighth term in Cameroon amid unrest
Racist Incidents Against UK Nurses Surge by 55%
UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves Cites Shared Concerns With Trump Administration as Foundation for Early US-UK Trade Deal
Essentra plc: A Closer Look at a UK ‘Penny Stock’ Opportunity Amid Market Weakness
U.S. and China Near Deal to Avert Rare-Earth Export Controls Ahead of Trump-Xi Summit
Justin time: Justin Herbert Shields Madison Beer with Impressive Reflex at Lakers Game
Russia’s President Putin Declares Burevestnik Nuclear Cruise Missile Ready for Deployment
Giuffre’s Memoir Alleges Maxwell Claimed Sexual Act with Clooney
House Republicans Move to Strip NYC Mayoral Front-Runner Zohran Mamdani of U.S. Citizenship
Record-High Spoiled Ballots Signal Voter Discontent in Ireland’s 2025 Presidential Election
Philippines’ Taal Volcano Erupts Overnight with 2.4 km Ash Plume
Albania’s Virtual AI 'Minister' Diella Set to 'Birth' Eighty-Three Digital Assistants for MPs
Tesla Unveils Vision for Optimus V3 as ‘Biggest Product of All Time’, Including Surgical Capabilities
Francis Ford Coppola Auctions Luxury Watches After Self-Financed Film Flop
Convicted Sex Offender Mistakenly Freed by UK Prison Service Arrested in London
United States and China Begin Constructive Trade Negotiations Ahead of Trump–Xi Summit
U.S. Treasury Sanctions Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro over Drug-Trafficking Allegations
Miss USA Crowns Nebraska’s Audrey Eckert Amid Leadership Overhaul
‘I Am Not Done’: Kamala Harris Signals Possible 2028 White House Run
NBA Faces Integrity Crisis After Mass Arrests in Gambling Scandal
Swift Heist at the Louvre Sees Eight French Crown Jewels Stolen in Under Seven Minutes
U.S. Halts Trade Talks with Canada After Ontario Ad Using Reagan Voice Triggers Diplomatic Fallout
Microsoft AI CEO: ‘We’re making an AI that you can trust your kids to use’ — but can Microsoft rebuild its own trust before fixing the industry’s?
×