Mandatory quarantine order
Dear Department of Health,
Please advise the number of mandatory quarantine orders issued to arrivals in Hong Kong from the start to the end of the policy ie. March 2020 - Sep 2022.
I would also like to see a breakdown by number of days for each order and whether it was at home or in a hotel.
Yours faithfully,
Ms SM Darwin
Dear Ms Darwin,
I refer to your email dated 8 March 2023.
The Department of Health had issued about 1 600 000 compulsory quarantine
orders to persons who arrived in Hong Kong. A breakdown of the compulsory
quarantine orders is not available.
Thank you for your attention.
(Kara LAI)
for Director of Health
Dear Department of Health,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of Department of Health's handling of my FOI request 'Mandatory quarantine order'. I am dissatisfied with the response received so far as it is incomplete.
My response is as follows:
Dear Ms Lai
Thank you for your response.
While I note that you have answered my question regarding the total number of quarantine orders, the following information that I requested is still missing:
- total number of home quarantine orders
- total number of hotel quarantine orders
- how many home quarantine orders were there for different durations of stay (ie. 7 days, 14 days, 21 days etc)
- how many hotel quarantine orders were there for different durations of stay (ie. 3 days, 7 days, 14 days, 21 days etc)
I believe that the breakdown of quarantine orders whether by home or hotel and by duration should be publicly available and I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely
Ms SM Darwin
[ GIVE DETAILS ABOUT YOUR COMPLAINT HERE ]
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://accessinfo.hk/en/request/mandato...
Yours faithfully,
SM Darwin
Dear Ms Darwin,
Our department received your application for access to information on
19.03.2023. Your application is now under processing.
According to paragraph 1.16 of the Code on Access to Information, our
department will inform you of the latest progress of the case separately
on or before 06.04.2022. Thank You.
(Kara LAI)
for Director of Health
Dear Ms Darwin,
Our department received your application for access to information on
19.03.2023. Your application is now under processing.
According to paragraph 1.16 of the Code on Access to Information, our
department will inform you of the latest progress of the case separately
on or before 06.04.2023. Thank You.
(Kara LAI)
for Director of Health
Dear Department of Health,
I would like to know how many isolation orders where people were sent to quarantine centres (Penny’s Bay, Kai Tak etc) were given out and the total number of days duration for all isolation orders.
Thank you.
SM Darwin
Dear Ms Darwin,
I refer to your email dated 30 March 2023.
"I would like to know how many isolation orders where people were sent to
quarantine centres (Penny’s Bay, Kai Tak etc) were given out and the total
number of days duration for all isolation orders."
Grateful for your clarification if you requested the statistics for
isolation orders or compulsory quarantine orders?
If for compulsory quarantine orders, the requested figures only refer to
those issued to persons who arrived in Hong Kong, or the total number,
which includes close contacts of infected persons?
Thank you.
(Miss Kara LAI)
for Director of Health
Dear Miss Kara Lai
Thank you for your email.
1. To clarify, I am looking for the total number of both isolation orders (which includes the close contacts of infected persons) with duration and the total number of compulsory quarantine orders with duration.
2. For isolation orders I require:
a) where people were required to go - either stay at home or go to a quarantine centre such as Penny's Bay, Kai Tak etc.
b) the total duration with a breakdown by number of days if they had to stay at home or go to a quarantine centre.
3. In an earlier response I was told that 1.6m compulsory quarantine orders were given to people arriving in Hong Kong. I am still awaiting a breakdown of that number :
a) if the quarantine had to take place in a hotel or at home
b) the total duration of whether in a hotel or at home.
I look forward to your reply.
Yours sincerely
Ms SM Darwin
Dear Ms Darwin,
I write further to the email to you dated 28.03.2023.
Please be informed that a longer processing time on your request is
required as we are liaising with relevant parties to process your request.
According to paragraph 1.18 of the Code on Access to Information, our
department will inform you of the latest progress of the case on or before
05.05.2023.
Thank you for your attention.
(Miss Kara LAI)
for Director of Health
Dear Ms Darwin,
Your application for access to information regarding the isolation orders
and the total number of quarantine orders on 04.04.2023 is now under
processing.
According to paragraph 1.16 of the Code on Access to Information, our
department will inform you of the latest progress of the case separately
on or before 24.04.2023. Thank You.
(Miss Kara LAI)
for Director of Health
Dear Ms Darwin,
I write further to the email to you dated 14.04.2023.
Please be informed that a longer processing time on your request is
required as we are consolidating the requested information.
According to paragraph 1.18 of the Code on Access to Information, our
department will inform you of the latest progress of the case on or before
24.05.2023.
Thank you for your attention.
(Miss Kara LAI)
for Director of Health
Dear Ms. Darwin,
Following our interim replies on 28 March and 6 April 2023, I am
authorised to give you a reply as follow –
Compulsory quarantine orders were issued to persons who arrived in Hong
Kong under the Compulsory Quarantine of Certain Persons Arriving at Hong
Kong Regulation (Cap. 599C) and Compulsory Quarantine of Persons Arriving
at Hong Kong from Foreign Places Regulation (Cap. 599E), if their places
of departure and duration of stay in those places were covered by the
provisions concerned. About 1 600 000 compulsory quarantine orders in
total were issued, with about 560 000 issued under Cap. 599C and about 1
050 000 issued under Cap. 599E.
We maintain a breakdown on the number of compulsory quarantine orders for
those who were subject to quarantine at their places of residence or
quarantine centres under Cap. 599C.
Apart from the following breakdown, the other figures requested in your
enquiry are not available –
No. of compulsory No. of compulsory
No. of compulsory quarantine orders in quarantine orders in
quarantine orders relation to relation to
in relation to quarantine at quarantine at Total
quarantine at home designated quarantine centre
issued under Cap. quarantine hotels issued under Cap.
599C issued under Cap. 599C
599C
about 460 000 about 100 000 about 2 800 about 560 000
Yours sincerely,
(Desmond CHENG)
for Director of Health
Dear Department of Health,
I cannot understand your response as the last paragraph of your response is garbled. What are those figures supposed to mean? I quote the final paragraph below:
"No. of compulsory No. of compulsory
No. of compulsory quarantine orders in quarantine orders in
quarantine orders relation to relation to
in relation to quarantine at quarantine at Total
quarantine at home designated quarantine centre
issued under Cap. quarantine hotels issued under Cap.
599C issued under Cap. 599C
599C
about 460 000 about 100 000 about 2 800 about 560 000"
You have told me that the total number of compulsory quarantine orders is around 1,600,000 (560,000 Cap599C and 1,050,000 Cap599E).
To clarify, what I am looking for is :
1) total numbers of quarantine orders that had to take place in a) a hotel or b) at home or c) in a quarantine centre
2) the cumulative total days spent by all people quarantined over the mandatory quarantine period with a breakdown by a) a hotel or b) at home or c) in a quarantine centre
I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Yours faithfully,
SM Darwin
Dear Ms. Darwin,
I refer to your email dated 12 May 2023.
As the website cannot display the table, please find our reply attached.
Thank you.
Dear Ms Darwin,
Following our interim replies on 14 April and 24 April 2023, regarding the
request for isolation orders and the total number of quarantine orders,
our reply is as follow –
Total number for isolation orders and quarantine orders
According to records of the Centre for Health Protection (CHP), a total of
2,401,166 isolation orders and 2,016,875 quarantine orders have been
issued to COVID-19 cases and close contacts respectively since 2021.
Please note that isolation/quarantine duration changed over time and
varied from person to person, depending on the discharge criteria and
isolation/quarantine policies which has been changing from time to time
Moreover, during the 5^th wave, confirmed cases were issued isolation
order for 14 days counting from the date of collection of the positive
specimen (i.e. Day 0). They could do rapid antigen test (RAT) from Day 6
onward and they could end their isolation early if they have obtained
negative RAT on two consecutive days. As they did not require to report to
CHP upon the end of their isolation, CHP did not have information on the
exact isolation duration of each case. A summary of the changes in
isolation/quarantine policy is attached below for reference:
Isolation
* Since 07/05/2020, patients must stay in hospital for at least 10 days
after symptom onset, and meet the criteria of having two clinical
specimens test negative or testing positive for the SARS-CoV-2
antibody before discharge.
* Since 27/10/2021, patients fulfilling hospital discharge criteria were
immediately arranged to designated isolation facilities to undergo
14-day isolation.
* Since 17/02/2022, patients testing negative on Day 7 might be
discharged home and stay there until Day 14 for further testing.
* Since 26/02/2022, patients obtaining RAT negative on Day 6 and 7 (or
any other subsequent two successive days) could finish isolation, if
they had received at least two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.
* Since 09/12/2022, patients obtaining RAT negative on Day 4 and 5 (or
any other subsequent two successive days) could finish isolation.
Quarantine
* Since 26/01/2020, close contacts were quarantined for 14 days.
* Since 23/04/2021, residents of building with cases involving the N501Y
mutant strain were quarantined for 21 days.
* Since 02/05/2021, close contacts of local cases with the N501Y mutant
strain or other variants of concern were quarantined for 21 days.
* Since 07/05/2021, vaccinated close contacts of local cases not
involving the N501Y mutant strain might be quarantined for 7 days if
they met certain criteria; vaccinated close contacts of local cases
with the N501Y mutant strain might be quarantined for 14 days if they
met certain criteria.
* Since 10/01/2022, close contacts of local cases were quarantined for
14 days.
* Since 26/02/2022, close contacts obtaining negative RAT results on Day
6 and 7 could finish quarantine, if they had received at least two
doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.
* Since 09/12/2022, close contacts obtaining negative daily RAT results
could finish quarantine on Day 5.
Breakdown for isolation orders
A COVID-19 case could be isolated at home, in hospital or one of the
Community Isolation Facilities, depending on clinical condition, living
condition and other factors. According to the readily available
information, approximately 1,115,000 cases should be isolated at home from
20 July 2022 to 29 January 2023, while approximately 316,000 cases should
be isolated in Community Isolation Facilities during the same period.
Nevertheless, their final venues of isolation might be different from the
initial triaged locations owing to various reasons such as change in
clinical condition. As mentioned above, we have no information on the
exact isolation duration of each case.
(Miss Kara LAI)
for Director of Health