The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:

     The Hospital Authority (HA) today (October 31) announced that special visiting arrangement in infirmary hospitals will be implemented beginning next Wednesday (November 4).
      
     The special visiting arrangement will begin next week and initially cover eight hospitals (as appended table). Ward staff will begin contacting patients' family members today for scheduling the visits. Family members are not required to call the wards for booking themselves. Each patient will be allocated a one-hour session by one registered visitor each week, with the arrangement of the hospitals.
      
     The HA spokesperson said, "the HA has implemented special visiting arrangement in June but suspended upon the third wave of the epidemic."
      
     "With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic around the world, the Emergency Response Level will likely be maintained for a while. Amid easing situation locally, both the HA Central Command Committee and HA Central Committee on Infectious Disease and Emergency Responses have deliberated and assessed the infection control risk associated with visiting arrangement. It was agreed that special visiting arrangement could be first resumed in infirmary hospitals."
      
     "Long-stay patients rely more heavily on the support from family members both psychologically and in their daily lives. The hospitals concerned have not received any COVID-19 patients and crowd control measures for visitors are physically viable."
      
     The arrangement will be adjusted with due consideration to the latest epidemic situation, including the progressive extension of the arrangement to other hospitals and wards if situation allows.
      
     "Visitors entering public hospitals are required to comply with the infection control measures, such as wearing surgical masks, temperature checking, and health declaration, to safeguard the wellbeing of patients, staff and visitors."
     
     "We hope the community can understand that visiting arrangements can only be made with certain restrictions under the current epidemic situation. Meanwhile, other hospitals and wards will continue to make compassionate arrangements and video-visiting as far as practicable," the spokesperson added.

Infirmary Hospitals with Special Visiting Arrangement
(Commences on 4 November 2020)
 

Hong Kong East Cluster	Cheshire Home, Chung Hom Kok Wong Chuk Hang Hospital
Hong Kong West Cluster	Tung Wah Group of Hospitals Fung Yiu King Hospital
Kowloon East Cluster	Haven of Hope Hospital
Kowloon Central Cluster	Hong Kong Buddhist Hospital
Kowloon West Cluster	Lai King Building, Princess Margaret Hospital
New Territories East Cluster	Cheshire Home, Shatin
New Territories West Cluster	Tin Ka Ping Infirmary, Pok Oi Hospital

Ends/Saturday, October 31, 2020
Issued at HKT 14:56

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