No immediate health declarations on trains: govt

No immediate health declarations on trains: govt

Health authorities in Hong Kong said on Thursday that they are considering health declaration forms for all visitors arriving from the mainland by high-speed rail, but said they would have to sort out logistical issues first.



They also said that as the number of passengers who arrive by train is large, they don't want to cause delays at West Kowloon terminus. Operational and manpower issues would have to be sorted out first before health forms could be issued, the officials said.



Currently, only travellers arriving on flights from Wuhan are required to fill out these forms. There was no word as to whether this would be expanded to cover all visitors from the mainland.



The Controller for Centre for Health Protection, Wong Ka-hing, said officials are looking to make all people arriving by train make health declarations.



“There are challenges because the number of passengers is quite big and we don’t want to delay their passage. So it would depend on the logistics, the operation and manpower etc. We’ll take these into account and when all are sorted out promptly, we’ll implement it right away,” he said.



He added that the health declaration form would be a “supplementary” measure in addition to the temperature screening at border points.



Asked about similar measures at other border points, the officials said they were "reviewing such steps".



Experts have been calling on the government to introduce health declaration forms for passengers arriving in Hong Kong. But officials have so far stonewalled this, with one saying some of the information provided by the public may not be accurate.



Health Secretary Sophia Chan has said that the temperature checks now being carried out at the West Kowloon rail terminus are adequate enough to look for suspected virus cases.