Hong Kong lifts isolation orders for COVID patients

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Hong Kong lifts isolation orders for COVID patients

On December 29, 2022, Pedestrians cross the road in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. During the weekend, EDMOND TANG CHINA DAILY COVID 19 patients in Hong Kong will no longer be required to stay in quarantine beginning Monday, as Hong Kong made another stride toward normalcy by stopping the issuing isolation orders to COVID 19 patients and the city s clinics resume normal service.

Confirmed COVID patients with no symptoms are allowed to move freely and go to work. Students who test positive should not return to classes until they can present a negative self-test result.

Patients who had been staying in isolation facilities can leave Monday without a negative self-test result. Patients who wish to stay in quarantine centers or in quarantine can stay there for up to seven days.

Nursing home residents who have not received more than three doses of COVID- 19 vaccine can opt for holding centers run by the Social Welfare Department for care. The transitional arrangement will continue until February 28.

All 71 of the Hospital Authority's general outpatient clinics resumed normal services Monday and started to provide treatment to confirmed patients as well as prescribing oral anti-COVID drugs to patients in need. The clinics have increased their daily episodic consultation quota to more than 10,000, with 2,000 of them reserved for COVID- 19 patients, according to a government statement on Sunday. A HA spokesman said increased quotas would be deployed if necessary to treat COVID patients.

Confirmed patients can also seek treatment from private doctors, with 500 private doctors in the city prescribing oral medication for COVID patients.

Students still need to take rapid antigen tests before returning to school at the end of February, according to the Education Bureau.

Teachers and staff, bus drivers and bus attendants don't need to do so in the meantime.

Applications for the HK $5,000 $638 one-off ex-gratia cash allowance for locally confirmed COVID 19 patients will close on February 14. The allowance scheme was introduced in November 2020 to help hospitalized COVID-patients who don't have paid sick leave or are self-employed. The government had paid $13.64 million to 2,728 residents under the scheme as of Friday.

The isolation orders issued by the government's health officers allowed employees to claim paid sick leave. With the withdrawal of isolation orders doctors can provide diagnosis and treatment and issue sick leave certificates to COVID 19 patients based on their clinical situation, the government said in a guideline issued on Friday.

ALSO READ: COVID tests for mainland travel tipped to be lifted in a few days.

Tam Kam-lin, vice-chairwoman of the Federation of Hong Kong and Kowloon Labour Unions, expressed her concerns over the new sick leave arrangement on Monday in a radio program.

She said that employees get two days of sick leave for every medical visit, but in most cases they get up to two days of sick leave. Patients may need to see doctors multiple times for more serious matters, and consultation costs may become a burden for grassroots families, Tam said.

Tam said that many of the retail, catering and transportation employees don't get their full salary and attendance bonus if they take sick leave. She encouraged business owners to consider accepting self-test results in the early stages of lifting the quarantine order to ease financial burdens for employees and make sure they have enough rest.