The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:

     In view of the latest epidemic developments, the Hospital Authority (HA) today (January 20) announced the continued suspension of the special visiting arrangement at public hospitals until further announcement. Visits under compassionate considerations will be arranged according to patients' conditions and the operation of the wards/units.
 
     "For pre-arranged compassionate visits under specific circumstances, the visitors must have completed two-dose COVID‐19 vaccination for 14 days, and must provide either a negative COVID-19 nucleic acid test result obtained within 48 hours or provide a negative COVID-19 rapid antigen test result obtained within 24 hours," the HA spokesman said.
 
     "For compassionate visits under emergency situations, such as visiting the critically ill or end-of-life visits, visitors must provide a negative COVID-19 nucleic acid test result obtained within 48 hours or a negative COVID-19 rapid antigen test result obtained within 24 hours before the visit. If the visitor cannot arrange the test in advance, a COVID-19 rapid antigen test must be performed and the test result must be provided right after the visit."
 
     The HA hopes the patients' family members can understand the limitations of the visiting arrangements under the current epidemic situation. All hospitals will continue to facilitate video visiting as far as practicable.
 
     The spokesman reiterated that all visitors entering public hospitals are required to strictly comply with the infection control measures, such as wearing surgical masks, temperature checking and filling in health declaration forms. In addition, visitors need to scan the "LeaveHomeSafe" venue QR code when entering public hospitals, except for exempted persons (persons who are aged below 12 or aged 65 or above, those with disabilities that render use of the app difficult and individual persons granted exemptions due to actual circumstances can complete a record form as registration).

Ends/Thursday, January 20, 2022
Issued at HKT 17:30

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