Latest arrangement for opening Penny's Bay Quarantine Centre for quarantine of foreign domestic helpers
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A Government spokesman said, "The Government had temporarily suspended accepting bookings at PBQC earlier in order to review the reservation workflow and logistics arrangements. The booking system will reopen starting from October 4. Employers and employment agencies (EAs) may, starting from 9am on October 4, make an application for room reservation through the booking system on the FDH Portal of the Labour Department (LD) (www.fdh.labour.gov.hk). The booking system will display the rooms available for booking from October 22 to 28. Rooms available for reservation in the next round will be displayed on the booking system at 9am every Monday. For example, rooms from October 29 to November 4 will be available for reservation on October 11, and so on."
The spokesman continued, "To further address the needs of employers of FDHs, the Government will provide an additional 200 units at PBQC for quarantine of FDHs starting from October 22. In order to arrange for FDHs to come to Hong Kong in a gradual and orderly manner and to guard against imported cases, PBQC will continue to receive at most 50 FDHs every day. The Government will consider the need for further increasing the number of Designated Quarantine Facilities (DQFs) having regard to the worldwide and local epidemic situation."
The LD will process the applications in the order of submission of applications. The LD will contact an applicant within one or two days to acknowledge receipt of the application and request the applicant to provide relevant documents (i.e. a copy of the FDH's passport, a valid employment visa and a recognised vaccination record). After verifying the relevant documents, the LD will issue a demand note to the applicant. The applicant must settle the payment and produce the payment receipt within the specified period of time. The booking process will be completed upon issuance of a booking confirmation by the LD. If any reservations are cancelled by applicants, the rooms will be available for booking again.
Employers and EAs should allow sufficient time for preparing the documents required and completing the procedures when arranging for their FDHs to come to Hong Kong. They should only book an air ticket for their FDHs after they have successfully confirmed the room reservation in a DQF. If an FDH has not reserved a room in a DQF, the FDH will not be allowed to board a flight for Hong Kong or may be denied entry into Hong Kong upon arrival.
The above arrangement is applicable to FDHs who have been fully vaccinated in Group A specified places (the currently applicable regions are Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Russia, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates). As for FDHs who have received full vaccination in Hong Kong, they may undergo compulsory quarantine at a general designated quarantine hotel or a DQF (i.e. Silka Tsuen Wan, Hong Kong and PBQC).
For enquiries, please contact the LD through its hotline at 2717 1771 or by email to fdh-enquiry@labour.gov.hk.
Ends/Tuesday, September 28, 2021
Issued at HKT 16:01
Issued at HKT 16:01
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