'0+3' arrangement reasonable under current situation: govt adviser

Hong Kong Government expert adviser Ivan Hung Fan-ngai, head of the Division of Infectious Diseases in the Department of Medicine at the University of Hong Kong, said in a radio program that the new "0+3" arrangement is justified, explaining that the current risk is believed to be very low due to the low rate of imported cases to total cases.

As for the "0+0" scheme, Hung suggested that if the epidemic does not rebound in 2 to 3 weeks, "0+0" can be introduced to abolish all quarantine arrangements for inbound travelers.

He also estimated that conditions would be in place by next spring and summer to remove the masks.

According to Hung, many of the arrivals had been vaccinated. They had to undergo specified procedures after entry, including regular nucleic acid testing, rapid testing, and compliance with the "yellow code" requirement.

Hung added that the number of confirmed cases in HK has dropped to more than 3,000 in a single day, and it is expected that the number of cases will further drop to 1,000 to 2,000 in a few days. The overall number of severe hospital admissions will also drop. By then, there will be room to relax the social distance measures and suspend the enclosed compulsory inspection or sewage surveillance measures, said Hung.

Hung also said that it is believed that the emergency services of public hospitals can soon be restored to 80% to 90%, when the close contacts, especially health care workers, only need to do daily nucleic acid testing and wear N95 or the same level of the mask to go to work.