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

New measures at the airport to manage inbound travellers have so far gone smoothly, the Government said today.

The Department of Health implemented extended health quarantine arrangements on inbound travellers arriving from all countries and territories from today, demanding them to undergo compulsory quarantine.

During a press briefing this afternoon, Under Secretary for Food & Health Dr Chui Tak-yi noted that implementing the measures involved a lot of advanced planning by government departments.

“The relevant departments including the Department of Health and the Immigration Department have worked out a very detailed operation flow in terms of managing people who get off the plane to an area to handle the health declaration and the issue of quarantine orders, and also to distribute to them packages on health advice upon arriving home and what is required for their attention during the home quarantine period.”

Dr Chui added that the response from travellers had been positive so far.

“They have to go through the usual immigration procedures and their assessment in the past several hours is that the process is so far smooth and the time taken for a person to go through the process is about 15 minutes.

“Of course the issue is the volume, because the number of people arriving at the airport per day may be 10,000 or even more. So I think they need to observe for a few days to make sure everything is smooth.”