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FS visits biomedical firm in UK

Financial Secretary Paul Chan yesterday visited a biopharmaceutical company and the Royal College of Art, and attended a lunch hosted by the China-Britain Business Council, as part of his ongoing trip to London.   Mr Chan visited AstraZeneca and met the company’s senior management to learn about its drug research and development activities, as well as its latest expansion plans.   AstraZeneca indicated that following in-depth talks with Hong Kong’s Office for Attracting Strategic Enterprises, it plans to develop a research and development centre in Hong Kong and will engage in further discussion with relevant government departments on the matter.   The Financial Secretary then attended a roundtable luncheon held by the China-Britain Business Council, and met representatives of British enterprises that do business, or plan to do business, either in the Mainland or Hong Kong.   Mr Chan later visited the Royal College of Art, which collaborated with the Hong Kong Polytechnic Unive
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Quarantine adjustment recommended

The scientific committees under the Centre for Health Protection today recommended that the Government adjust the compulsory quarantine for people who arrive from medium or low-risk places at designated hotels to 14 days.   Scientific Committee on Emerging & Zoonotic Diseases Chairman Prof David Hui told reporters after attending the committees’ joint meeting that there was growing evidence supporting the increased transmissibility of the Delta variant.   He pointed out that the infection with Delta variant results in similarly high viral loads in vaccinated and unvaccinated people. Fully vaccinated people can still spread the virus to others after being infected with COVID-19 carrying the Delta variant.   Currently, fully vaccinated people arriving from medium-risk or low-risk places who meet certain criteria can undergo compulsory quarantine as short as seven days in a designated quarantine hotel with self-monitoring in the subsequent seven days.   Given that there are about 12% of the imported cases involving fully vaccinated people whose cases were detected beyond the seventh day after arrival, seven days’ hotel quarantine would be insufficient, Dr Hui said.   “Take the example of the domestic helper who arrived from the US, her specimen was taken on the 12th day of quarantine and confirmed COVID-19 positive on the 13th day of quarantine. The cycle threshold value was 16.5, indicating a very high viral load.   “So that means the seven days’ hotel quarantine would be insufficient, at least we have a local example.   “Therefore, changing to 14 days of hotel quarantine for the time being would be a more prudent approach.”   Despite some data based on modelling that 10 days of quarantine would be sufficient and the COVID-19 detection rate would be up to 98%, the Government is still not prepared to accept the 1% to 2% risk of leaking COVID-19 cases into the community, he added.   The committees recommended that people arriving from medium or low-risk places have to undergo quarantine for 14 days at a designated hotel and self-monitor in the subsequent seven days even if they have completed the full course of COVID-19 vaccines, tested negative for COVID-19 and obtained positive result on antibodies on arrival.  
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