Hong Kong has opened its doors to the entry of foreign domestic workers. However, more foreign workers arrive, the number of COVID-19 cases also doubled, says Secretary for Labor and Welfare Law Chi-kwong.
According to the statistics presented by Law, there was an average of 28.3 FDHs who managed to enter Hong Kong in September. The following month, the number climbed up to 63.7 and by November, it grew further to 107.2.
Law thinks that the government’s action to add designated quarantine facilities, as well as the rise of occupancy quotas for FDH, contributed so much to the rise of infections. He also cited that domestic workers arriving from the Philippines have become the biggest contributor in the rise of cases, with Indonesia at the fourth place.
“We will continue to observe the epidemic situation in the two places, the progress of the vaccination rate, and the change in the diagnosis rate after arriving in Hong Kong, so as to adjust the progress of importing FDHs from the Philippines and Indonesia,” says Law.
But labor secretary noted that there is a huge drop in cases in the Philippines over the past few months. By November 10, there were only 2,200 reported cases.
By the end of September, a total of 25.1% of the Philippines population received at least one dose of vaccine and by the end of October, 28.7% of the Philippines ’ population already received two doses of vaccines.
“Judging from the overall vaccination rate and the progress in October, the progress of vaccination in Indonesia is also better than that in the Philippines,” says Law.
Source SunWebHK
