Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Patrick Nip Tak-kuen (right) shows an elderly man how to use hand sanitizer during his visit to three households in Sham Shui Po while distributing anti-epidemic packs including face masks, hand sanitizer and alcohol swabs. (Photo: China Daily)

After spending a night and a half day calling local hotels, Albert Poon finally secured a room for his cousin, who will fly back to the city next week from the United Kingdom. The hotel in Mong Kok provides a "14-day quarantine package", asking for HK$600 per night. Poon immediately booked it.

Poon was then briefed on the phone that his cousin would not be allowed to step outside the hotel room while food and other daily necessities will be delivered to her at door. She can pick them up only after hotel employees leave. The hotel also assured Poon that all facilities inside the hotel room will be thoroughly disinfected, while facilities in public areas will be disinfected every hour.

"My cousin's family think that it is not safe to have self-isolation at home. They prefer their daughter to stay outside and to come back home virus-free," Poon told China Daily. As of 11 pm on Thursday, the UK has recorded 676 new confirmed COVID-19 cases — bringing the country's total to 2,626.

Many overseas Hong Kong residents, like Poon's cousin, flocked back to the city as the novel coronavirus became a pandemic. To prevent the city suffering a major local transmission, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government is requiring all arrivals coming to Hong Kong from foreign countries to undergo a 14-day mandatory quarantine, either at home or in designated quarantine places. This started from Wednesday.

For many local residents, home quarantine is the first option. But it is obviously not always a safe one.

Chuang Shuk-kwan, who heads the Communicable Disease Branch under Hong Kong's Department of Health said, during a daily conference on Tuesday that home quarantine posed threats of infection to household members.

Currently, there are only a few hotels in Hong Kong providing similar packages that Poon was offered. Poon said he was turned down by over 15 hotels before securing one.

When China Daily called another hotel in Causeway Bay which offered a quarantine package, an employee said all rooms under the package were booked. But she did not reveal the exact number of rooms. She also added the hotel takes in regular dwellers but will put them at least two floors away from those people undergoing quarantines.

Yiu Si-wing, a Hong Kong lawmaker representing the tourism industry, said on Wednesday that at least eight hotels are willing to offer all their rooms — around 1,000 in total — to house local residents undergoing mandatory self-isolation.

He suggested the government support those hotels by providing a guarantee that 70 percent of their rooms will be occupied.

Under Secretary for Food and Health Chui Tak-yi said on Thursday that hotel quarantine is a possible option and the SAR government is open to different thoughts on how to quarantine overseas travelers.

But he added that Hong Kong is still in the initial stage of mandatory quarantines for all overseas arrivals, and the government needs to observe the effect of home quarantines before taking further action.

Leung Chi-chiu, chairman of the Advisory Committee on Communicable Diseases under the Hong Kong Medical Association, voiced support for hotel quarantine. Leung said it is an effective way to contain the virus when the city receives many international travelers from high risks areas.

He added that as long as quarantined dwellers stay inside their rooms and reduce contact with other people in hotels, the risks of cross-infection inside hotels will be low.