The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:

     A spokesman for the Hospital Authority (HA) today (June 21) announced that the special visiting arrangement will be further extended from 18 to 22 non-acute hospitals on June 25.
     
     The special visiting arrangement will cover four more hospitals. Meanwhile, three hospitals will further extend the existing special visiting arrangement to more wards (see details in the Appendix). Family members have to schedule the visits via ward staff, who will begin contacting them in the next few days. Family members are not required to call the wards for booking themselves. One to two visits will be arranged per week with due consideration to the operation of individual wards.
      
     To minimise the infection risk for inpatients and staff, one-off visitors are required to present a negative COVID-19 nucleic acid test result obtained within 72 hours before the scheduled visit. Regular visitors can choose to conduct weekly testing. 
 
     "Visitors who have completed a two-dose COVID-19 vaccination for more than 14 days will be exempted from the testing requirements. The exemption will also be applicable to compassionate and emergency visits," the spokesperson added.
 
     The spokesperson reminded visitors to scan the Hospital Visit QR code to fill in the health declaration form within 24 hours before the visit and show the QR code generated by the system to the ward staff. The Hospital Visit QR code is displayed on the HA webpage and in the mobile app "HA Go".
 
     The HA hopes 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 facilitate compassionate visiting arrangements and video visiting as far as practicable.
 
     The spokesperson reiterated that all visitors entering public hospitals are required to comply with the infection control measures, such as wearing surgical masks, temperature checking and filling in health declaration forms. In addition, visitors are encouraged to scan the "LeaveHomeSafe" venue QR code displayed at all public hospitals for complete personal records of their visits. ​

Ends/Monday, June 21, 2021
Issued at HKT 15:15

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