Help for those home quarantined set

March 13, 2022

(To watch the full press conference with sign language interpretation, click here.)

 

With an estimated 300,000 people currently undergoing home quarantine or home isolation, the Government is striving to do its best to give them the support they need, including providing them with anti-epidemic supplies.

 

Chief Executive Carrie Lam made the announcement and took time to explain the figures of people under home quarantine or home isolation at a press conference this morning.

 

“About the number of people under home quarantine or home isolation, the figure of 300,000 or over 300,000 was derived from a combination of two figures.

 

“One is, of course, those who have been issued home quarantine orders. I think the figure is about 150,000, but as I explained, this figure is likely to be an exaggerated figure because it was calculated on the basis of a 14-day quarantine period. But actually from late February, the Centre for Health Protection had already adjusted its discharge policy.

 

“Then, the other half will be those infected cases under home isolation.”

 

She also noted that while it is difficult for the Government to take care of every person who is undergoing home quarantine or home isolation, it has recently managed to increase its distribution of anti-epidemic supplies to them.

 

“Because of the large numbers of people who are in that situation, we might not be able to reach out to everyone. This is just because of a limitation in the capacity. Although we have been trying very, very hard to make sure that we could provide some services.

 

“For example, in the service under the Secretary for Innovation & Technology - which is the first point of contact - once the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer gets the list of names of infected persons, they will arrange logistics companies to send this anti-epidemic bag with all those things provided within it to each and every infected person and their household members.

 

“At the beginning, it would be very difficult to catch up, but I think a few days ago, they managed to catch up by distributing 60,000 bags in a day.

 

“But of course if today’s volume, again, is a very big volume, then I cannot guarantee that we will be able to do it within the 24 hours that we want to do it in. But we will certainly try very hard, through all the things that you have heard this morning about more designated clinics, more volunteers and more hotlines, in order to serve this population of people who need to stay at home.”

 

Mrs Lam appealed to citizens to continue to support the Government and comply with various anti-epidemic measures with the hope of getting out from under the fifth wave of the COVID-19 epidemic as soon as possible.

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