The Department of Health (DH) today (July 27) said to further facilitate the self-monitoring of inbound travellers undergoing quarantine at designated quarantine hotels (DQHs), the DH has developed a supplementary platform, "Electronic COVID-19 Medical Surveillance System" (eCMSS), for a trial run. Under the trial run, those who stay at DQHs can, acting on their own will, choose to register their rapid antigen test (RAT) results and personal health status through the system.
Currently, inbound travellers who had stayed in Taiwan or in overseas places have to undergo daily RATs and self-monitoring during their compulsory quarantine at DQHs. They need to record their information on a paper form health monitoring checklist provided by the hotels. The DQHs will notify the DH for following up with those travellers with symptoms or tested positive through RATs.
In order to provide a more convenient electronic mode for inbound travellers to make relevant reports, and to allow the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) to better grasp the health condition of inbound travellers during quarantine, the CHP earlier developed the supplementary e-platform, eCMSS, and began the trial run. Travellers arriving in Hong Kong on or after July 24 and staying in DQHs would receive an SMS inviting them to log in to the system with the link provided in the SMS and upload relevant information on a daily basis during quarantine, including personal contact information, RAT results, as well as their self-monitoring status (including body temperature records and other symptoms). As at yesterday (July 26), the DH had sent SMS to about 10 000 inbound travellers at DQHs, and about 5 000 of them chose to log in to the system.
A spokesman for the DH said that rolling out the system in a trial run could help assess whether the supplementary platform could assist the relevant authority in monitoring the situation of inbound travellers, and provide an appropriate follow-up in a more efficient manner, as well as remind at appropriate times inbound travellers to undergo RATs and self-monitoring. The spokesman reiterated that the objective of launching the system is to provide another convenient way for inbound travellers to record their health condition. They can still opt for the original paper form for recording purposes.
The DH will analyse the data collected during the trial phase, the system usage, as well as the capacity of the relevant system to decide whether the system is to be fully implemented. During the trial phase, DQHs are still required to collect the health surveillance information of inbound travellers, submit guest lists to the DH who tested positive, as well as to remind those guests who forget to do the RAT in accordance with the current arrangement.
​The Government will continue to enhance the quarantine and testing measures for inbound persons at appropriate times, so as to implement the stringent measures to guard against importation of cases in a more precise manner while enhancing the quarantine arrangement for persons arriving in Hong Kong from overseas places, thereby facilitating the movement of people necessary for social and economic recovery.
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