More quarantine rooms for helpers ready in February

The government said on Monday that 150 more hotel rooms will be available from February 1 for foreign domestic helpers to undergo quarantine upon arriving in Hong Kong.

The Labour Department said the Rambler Garden Hotel in Tsing Yi will be providing a total of 650 rooms, and the charge will go up from HK$650 to HK$700 per night.

Online bookings for the extra rooms will be open from 10am on Tuesday.

Rambler Garden Hotel, together with the Courtyard by Marriott Hong Kong Sha Tin and the Regala Skycity Hotel in Chek Lap Kok, will provide almost 2,300 quarantine rooms for helpers in total by then.

But Betty Yung, who chairs the Hong Kong Employers of Domestic Helpers Association, said 500 to 1,000 more rooms may be needed next month if flights from the Philippines resume.

“Now only domestic helpers can be coming back from Indonesia, so the supply of rooms can meet the needs now, because from the Philippines, the helpers cannot come,” she told RTHK.

“The flight suspension will end maybe before the Chinese New Year, I think then we will need more rooms as flights from the Philippines will resume.”

The government had said it would consider whether more quarantine facilities could be provided after reviewing the local and global Covid-19 situation.