Coronavirus: Hong Kong cross-border truck drivers ‘confused’ by Guangdong rules changes on entry, quarantine
- Transport chief Frank Chan says Guangdong has cut entry ban on truck drivers who live in areas with Covid-19 cases from 21 to 14 days
- But some drivers living in districts without Covid-19 infections still banned from entering Shenzhen, industry leader Stanley Chiang says
Secretary for Transport and Housing Frank Chan Fan told lawmakers on Thursday that Guangdong had a day earlier reduced the entry ban on truck drivers who lived in areas with Covid-19 cases from 21 to 14 days.
Chan said truck drivers of vegetables or other fresh food items would be exempted from the 21-day quarantine requirement if they tested negative for the coronavirus on the mainland, even if their residential buildings or estates recorded infections.
However, Hong Kong Land Transport Council chairman Stanley Chiang Chi-wai revealed on Thursday that some drivers who lived in districts without any infections were still banned from entering Shenzhen and the duration of the ban remained unknown.
“There is confusion,” he said. “Previously, officials would be clearer [in their instructions]. Now whenever they want to ban a driver, they will just do it.”
Earlier this month, Shenzhen authorities stopped exempting the city’s cross-border truck drivers from quarantine upon arrival to avoid the spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant.
There are about 8,000 cross-border drivers in total, but 66 of them have been infected and hundreds deemed close contacts have been sent to confinement since February 4. Hong Kong has repeatedly broken daily infection records in the past week, confirming 6,116 cases on Thursday with 259 related deaths.
