HONG KONG (SE): Foreign domestic workers have been urged to keep their masks on during gatherings on their days off and to avoid eating together during the Covid-19 epidemic. Gathering duration times should also be reduced.
Ho Pak-Leung, of the Department of Microbiology of the Hong Kong University, made the appeal in an audio message sent on WhatsApp on February 21. He explained that 12 of the 69 confirmed cases that day were the result of having meals together.
He also warned against eating together at restaurants without masks and urged them to order take-away food.
Yuen Kwok-yung, a doctor renowned for fighting against SARS in 2003, made a similar appeal against meal gatherings and activities involving close social interaction on an RTHK radio programme aired on February 25.
A 32-year-old Filipino worker, in Quarry Bay, became the 61st confirmed Covid-19 case on February 18. Her employer, a 67-year-old woman, had joined a hotpot dinner at North Point with her family on January 26. The worker was not at the dinner, nor did she have any travel history.
According to a February 18 statement from the Centre for Health Protection, the worker developed a fever and cough on February 2. Her symptoms subsided after self-medication and she did not consult any private doctor.
She was admitted to Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital on February 14 for isolation and management by the centre during its epidemiological investigation on February 14. She initially tested negative for Covid-19 coronavirus, but underwent further testing due to persistent symptoms and tested positive on February 18.
Fortunately, the Philippine Consulate General in Hong Kong reported on its Facebook page on February 23 that the worker was recovering as further tests had come out negative. She was expected to be released within that week.
However, a report in the Apple Daily on February 19, said that she had met around 10 friends outside City Hall in Central for an hour on February 9. They wore masks and did not eat during the brief gathering.
The case caused worries for other employers of domestic helpers, who know that they get together with others on holidays.
Katty So, expressed her reluctance to allow her foreign domestic worker to go out on Sundays knowing that she would gather with friends for the whole day. She does not feel that doctors’ warnings concerning foreign domestic workers are discriminatory as even she herself will not join any social activities at this time nor go out unless necessary. But she fears that stopping her worker will hamper their employment relationship.
Sister Corazon Demetillo, director of the Diocesan Pastoral Centre for Filipinos, told the Sunday Examiner on February 20 that it was worrying to hear that a Filipino domestic worker had contracted the Covid-19 coronavirus at her employer’s home.
She expressed concern that employers would be in a dilemma as to whether to let workers go out on Sundays. She also hoped the friends of the infected worker would report to the Department of Health and allow themselves to be quarantined.
She encouraged workers to seriously consider making the sacrifice of taking more rest in their employer’s home during their days’ off during the critical period of contagion. She believes reading in their own rooms is a good way to spend a holiday, as they would not have much time to read when they are with friends.
However, she respects their choice, because while some have rooms of their own where they can rest, many others do not and may find it hard to stay in the living room with their employers around. They might also be asked to do the chores on their days off by employers who ignore labour laws.
Sister Demetillo shared that some workers, in this case, opt to relax by going hiking alone.
Migrant rights groups called on the Hong Kong government as well as employers not to make use of this circumstance to justify curtailing movement and deprive workers of their right to a weekly rest day.
“This confirmed case, as well as other workers who are undergoing the quarantine procedure, are all caused by having direct contact with Covid-19-positive people from their workplaces. So staying at home does not guarantee the safety of our workers and the families that they are working for,” said Dolores Balladares Pelaez, chairperson of the United Filipinos in Hong Kong.
She explained that singling out foreign domestic workers and forcing them to stay at home during weekly rest days is meaningless unless the employer’s whole family stays at home the whole week.
The group urged the Hong Kong government, consulates and employers to ensure that migrant workers are equally protected by providing a sufficient supply of free face masks, hand sanitisers, alcoholic-wipes and vitamins.
It also called on the government to provide multilingual health announcements, as everyone should be informed of updated news.
