With a large number of Hong Kong residents returning from overseas countries in which the COVID-19 epidemic situation has been increasingly severe recently, the number of imported cases in Hong Kong has surged rapidly and some clusters with community-acquired cases have been detected. After consideration by major members of the Steering Committee cum Command Centre chaired by the Chief Executive, Mrs Carrie Lam, enhancements were announced by Mrs Lam yesterday (March 23) for the anti-epidemic measures in four aspects, responding quickly to the latest developments of the disease.

     The four aspects of the measures are as follows:

(1) Preventing imported cases and cutting the virus transmission chain

     To further prevent imported cases and cut the global and local virus transmission chain as far as possible, the following measures will be implemented with effect from 0.00am on March 25, tentatively for 14 days:
 

• All non-Hong Kong residents coming from overseas countries and regions by plane will be denied entry to Hong Kong;
• Non-Hong Kong residents coming from the Mainland, Macao and Taiwan will be denied entry to Hong Kong if they have been to any overseas countries and regions in the past 14 days;
• All transit services at Hong Kong International Airport will be suspended; and
• All travellers coming from Macao and Taiwan, including Hong Kong and non-Hong Kong residents, will be subject to a 14-day compulsory quarantine, which is the same as the arrangements for people entering Hong Kong from the Mainland.

     Taking into consideration the practical situation, a small number of persons can be exempted from the above immigration restrictions and/or quarantine requirements, including:
 

• Macao residents who are registered under the Macao scheme under agreement between the Macao Special Administrative Region Government and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government that they will be immediately taken by coach back to Macao upon entry;
• Crew members of aircraft who need to commute to and from foreign places for performance of necessary duties or crew members of goods vessels;
• Government officials carrying out government duties including personnel of consular posts;
• Spouses and minor children of Hong Kong residents; and
• Personnel engaged in anti-epidemic work endorsed by the HKSAR Government.

     The Immigration Department will handle each case in accordance with immigration policy, the actual situation and established procedures.

(2) Early Identification of asymptomatic inbound travellers

     The Government will expand its current practice of random virus testing against asymptomatic inbound travellers by mandating that all arriving persons from the United Kingdom, other countries in Europe and the United States must have virus tests with an aim of identifying infected but asymptomatic cases as early as possible. The relevant travellers will be given a specimen container on arrival and will each be required to collect their deep throat saliva sample at a specific time and deliver it to one of the designated clinics as instructed by the Department of Health. If a sample tests positive, the Department of Health will arrange for the person to be admitted to hospital for isolation and treatment immediately. If the test result is negative, the person concerned will still be required to complete the 14-day home quarantine.

(3) Stringent enforcement actions to combat breaches of quarantine orders

     The law enforcement agencies will enhance enforcement and strictly combat offenders breaching quarantine orders, including setting up a hotline as soon as possible for members of the public to report such cases to enhance the effectiveness of law enforcement. On March 22 and yesterday, the Police intercepted several suspected offenders. The Police and the Department of Health immediately started investigation and are proactively collecting more evidence for the Department of Justice to consider prosecution. All the people concerned were subsequently sent to quarantine centres. In addition, the Police have placed people who have been found to have left their dwelling places without permission on the wanted list.

     The Government once again reminds all persons under compulsory quarantine to strictly comply with the quarantine order and not to defy the law.

(4) Reducing social contacts and gatherings further

     To further reduce social contacts and gatherings, the Government will invoke the Prevention and Control of Disease Ordinance (Cap. 599) to introduce legislation to temporarily prohibit the sale and supply of alcoholic drinks by about 8 600 restaurants, bars and clubs with liquor licences in Hong Kong. Details of the relevant legislation will be announced later.

     The Government will also discuss with members of the restaurant industry on ways to further reduce gatherings (such as wedding banquets and other celebration activities) and how restaurants can reduce customers' risk of infection during meals. If the effect of voluntary actions taken by the industry is not good, the Government will consider introducing regulations through the above-mentioned legislation.

     In addition, the Government will request the clubs on private recreational leases to immediately close all of their recreational and sports facilities, changing rooms and play rooms for young children in the clubs. The Government also appeals to other private clubs and gymnasia to adopt the same measure to reduce the risk of the spread of the virus.

     Mrs Lam said, "Since the situation continues to evolve drastically, the Government must make prompt responses to roll out more measures, and it will continue to do so down the road.

     "With the concerted efforts of Hong Kong people to maintain social distancing as much as possible over the past two months, the anti-epidemic work has yielded certain positive results. The number of confirmed cases, nonetheless, has increased significantly with the return of a large number of Hong Kong residents from overseas, jeopardising the situation. I urge every member of the public to put up with the inconvenience in their daily lives, and in particular call on those returnees from overseas who are under compulsory quarantine to strictly observe the quarantine order. I have no doubt that as long as we stay united to work together, we can definitely win the fight against the epidemic."

     The Chief Executive, Mrs Carrie Lam, visited Yan Chai Hospital Wong Wha San Secondary School in Tseung Kwan O today (March 23) to know more about e-learning matters arranged by teachers for students during the class suspension. She also thanked the teaching staff for supporting students to continue learning at home.
      
     Accompanied by the Permanent Secretary for Education, Mrs Ingrid Yeung, Mrs Lam listened to the briefing by the principal, Mr Yau Siu-hung, on the use of different e-learning software to maintain students' motivation and interest in learning during the class suspension period. Mrs Lam noted that the school has been making good use of information technology in teaching for years. Each student will be given a tablet computer during secondary one to facilitate their m-learning. She also observed teachers of the school conducting a real-time class for secondary six students through online video-conference software, and chatted with secondary one students during their online small group sharing session to learn about their coursework activities at home.
      
     Mrs Lam was pleased to note that besides e-learning, different schools have adopted other effective means to support students during the class suspension such as distributing coursework and other learning materials to students via emails, school websites, e-learning platforms or by post, and counselling students by telephone or communicating with students and parents through mobile applications to provide learning and emotional support for students. She said that the Government is also very concerned about the e-learning of students from grassroots families. Since the 2018/19 school year, the Community Care Fund has been providing subsidies to primary and secondary students in need under an assistance programme for purchasing mobile computer devices. The eligibility for applications has been extended to all primary and secondary schools which have implemented e-learning during the class suspension period in view of the epidemic. In addition, through the Anti-epidemic Fund, the Student Grant for the 2019/20 school year has been increased by $1,000 from $2,500 to $3,500 per student to help parents pay for expenses when purchasing devices for e-learning, etc. The grant is being disbursed progressively.
      
     Mrs Lam said that the situation of the disease is still severe and may last for a period of time. She appealed to schools, headmasters, teachers, parents and students to actively join in with the Government's work and fight the disease together.
      
     During the visit, Mrs Lam presented the Chief Executive's Award for Teaching Excellence (2018/2019) to the school teacher, Mr Foo Yun-wai, and visited the school hall which is a venue prepared for holding the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination.

          

     The Chief Executive, Mrs Carrie Lam, held a press conference this afternoon (March 23). Also joining were the Secretary for Security, Mr John Lee, and the Secretary for Food and Health, Professor Sophia Chan. Following is the transcript of remarks of the press conference.
 
Reporter: Thank you, Mrs Lam. On the new border control measures, can you explain why you are doing this now? Why couldn’t it have been done when you issued the red travel alerts earlier? And secondly, we've seen the pro-establishment and the pro-democracy camps call for this full border closure just today. Are you bowing to political pressure by agreeing to do this? And finally, on changing the requirements for selling of alcohol, that could have a huge impact on people working in that industry. Will the Government offer any sort of guarantees in terms of jobs and salaries, and how would that be enforced?
 
Chief Executive: Thank you for the two questions. First of all, there are several regimes that we could resort to in ensuring the objective of reducing people flow either from overseas countries or from the Mainland. One is of course what you have mentioned, the travel alert, the red travel alert, but that's outbound. That’s warning Hong Kong people not to go to these places.
 
     The second measure is the quarantine measure. That is for inbound travellers, arrivals, we imposed certain quarantine arrangements which will have a deterrent effect. I have told you two experiences. On February 8, when we imposed this 14-day quarantine arrangement on arrivals from Mainland, we have seen a 90 per cent drop in arrivals, whether it's Hong Kong residents or non-Hong Kong residents. And then on March 19 when we introduced this 14-day quarantine arrangement at the airport, we saw a drastic drop in other visitors, but the Hong Kong residents returning had not seen a similar decrease because a lot of Hong Kong people are rushing back because of the flu situation in the overseas countries.
      
     The third measure is immigration policy. Under the Immigration Ordinance, we could impose requirements disallowing people to come to Hong Kong for various reasons. What I have mentioned today is using the immigration policy, that from Wednesday onwards we will disallow non-Hong Kong residents coming from overseas countries arriving at the Hong Kong International Airport to enter Hong Kong. You have to understand we have different regimes. And in the last two months in leading this fight against the virus, I have time and again emphasised we are basing our decisions on science, on facts and figures, on evidence, and also have the expert advice of the four professors on the expert advisory panel. Politics or pressure are not something that come into the formula because it would be very risky to base public health decisions just because certain people have demanded for it. The difference between Saturday and today, one is of course the changing circumstances, which make people even more worried about these imported cases coming into Hong Kong. Secondly, we have to understand the impact of the measure imposed on March 19 and identify who are the people that despite a 14-day quarantine, they were still coming into Hong Kong so that when we deny entry, we know exactly who are the people to be affected and whether there are alternative ways to cater for the interests of these people. There is this category which I'll share with you. I explained on Saturday that amongst the five to six hundred arrivals still coming into Hong Kong after the 14-day quarantine requirement, there was a large number of Macao residents, because you understand that we are an aviation hub and a lot of Macao residents overseas have to come in through the Hong Kong International Airport and they want to go back to Macao. The Macao Government wants to welcome them back to Macao even if they are coming back from a highly infectious place because these are their people. So we have an agreement with or understanding with the Macao Government that they will ask these Macao residents overseas to register with the Macao Government. We will have the name list of these Macao residents, so upon arrival we'll allow them to come in and then immediately – they will not stay in Hong Kong – the Macao Government will send a coach to take them back to Macao via the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge.
      
     While I said that from Wednesday onwards we will deny entry of non-Hong Kong residents, this special arrangement with Macao will continue because as far as we could gather from Macao, there are over 1 000 Macao residents still waiting to come back to Macao. This is why I have to explain that sometimes certain decisions of the Government twill give rise to certain consequences, so it’s much more prudent to understand the consequences of our policy decision and try to reduce the adverse consequences that will affect people or cause people hardship to a minimum.
 
Reporter: And about the bars, Mrs Lam?
 
Chief Executive: It's not just the bars. I'm afraid that many sectors, many enterprises, are being severely hit by this coronavirus. Despite the fact that the Government has rolled out a $30 billion package under the Anti-epidemic Fund, and another $120 billion under the recent Budget initiatives, I understand that there is this demand or aspiration for more support from the Government. And on this occasion, when bars – actually it's not just bars, it’s all the restaurants and bars that have a liquor licence – will not be allowed to sell or supply liquor, certainly their business will be affected. We will certainly consider what further measures we should put in place to help these establishments.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)

     The Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the Department of Health (DH) announced that as of 4pm today (March 23), the CHP is investigating 39 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19, taking the number of cases to 357 in Hong Kong so far (comprising 356 confirmed cases and one probable case).
 
     The newly reported cases announced today involve 22 males and 17 females aged between 18 and 66. Among them, 31 had travel history during the incubation period. The CHP's epidemiological investigations and relevant contact tracing on the confirmed cases are ongoing. For case details and contact tracing information, please see the Annex.
 
     For information on flights that patients of the confirmed cases have taken, please refer to the following webpage: (www.chp.gov.hk/files/pdf/flights_trains_en.pdf). Passengers who travelled on the same flights and sat within two seats surrounding those patients are urged to call the CHP hotlines 2125 1111 and 2125 1122.
 
     The CHP again urged members of the public to maintain an appropriate social distance with other people as far as possible in their daily lives. In particular, they should go out less and avoid social activities such as meal gatherings or other gatherings to reduce the chance of contacting infected persons, who may not present any symptoms, and minimise the risk of outbreak clusters emerging in the community.
 
    A spokesman for the CHP said, "In view of proliferation of the disease and continuous increase in the number of cases reported around the world, members of the public are strongly urged to avoid all non-essential travel outside Hong Kong."
 
     "The CHP also strongly urges the public to maintain at all times strict personal and environmental hygiene, which is key to personal protection against infection and prevention of the spread of the disease in the community. On a personal level, members of the public should wear a surgical mask when having respiratory symptoms, taking public transport or staying in crowded places. They should also perform hand hygiene frequently, especially before touching the mouth, nose or eyes."
 
     "As for household environmental hygiene, members of the public are advised to maintain drainage pipes properly, and regularly pour water into drain outlets (U-traps); cover all floor drain outlets when they are not in use; after using the toilet, they should put the toilet lid down before flushing to avoid spreading germs."
 
     The CHP will report the cases to the World Health Organization, National Health Commission, Health Commission of Guangdong Province, relevant health authorities and the Hospital Authority.
 
     The CHP has set up the hotlines (2125 1111 and 2125 1122), which operate from 8am to midnight daily, for public enquiries. As at 4pm today, a total of 46 727 calls were received.
 
     Moreover, the Government has launched the website "COVID-19 Thematic Website" (www.coronavirus.gov.hk) for announcing the latest updates on various news on the COVID-19 infection and health advice to help the public understand the latest updates.
 
     To prevent pneumonia and respiratory tract infection, members of the public should always maintain good personal and environmental hygiene. They are advised to:
 
• Wear a surgical mask when taking public transport or staying in crowded places. It is important to wear a mask properly, including hand hygiene before wearing and after removing a mask;
• Perform hand hygiene frequently, especially before touching the mouth, nose or eyes, after touching public installations such as handrails or door knobs, or when hands are contaminated by respiratory secretions after coughing or sneezing;
• Maintain drainage pipes properly and regularly (about once a week) pour about half a liter of water into each drain outlet (U-traps) to ensure environmental hygiene;
• Cover all floor drain outlets when they are not in use;
• After using the toilet, put the toilet lid down before flushing to avoid spreading germs;
• Wash hands with liquid soap and water, and rub for at least 20 seconds. Then rinse with water and dry with a disposable paper towel. If hand washing facilities are not available, or when hands are not visibly soiled, performing hand hygiene with 70 to 80 per cent alcohol-based handrub is an effective alternative;
• Cover your mouth and nose with tissue paper when sneezing or coughing. Dispose of soiled tissues into a lidded rubbish bin, then wash hands thoroughly; and
• When having respiratory symptoms, wear a surgical mask, refrain from work or attending class at school, avoid going to crowded places and seek medical advice promptly.

The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:

     From March 20 to 10pm today (March 23), 244 and 59 travellers have been referred to the test centres at the AsiaWorld-Expo and North Lantau Hospital respectively for COVID-19 viral test.  So far, 210 travellers have negative test results for COVID-19 and have returned to their residence to continue the 14-day home quarantine.

     Preliminary positive test results will be further confirmed by the Department of Health and announced as confirmed cases in due course.