The Government today announced measures to reduce the health risks faced by foreign domestic helpers (FDH) staying in boarding facilities of employment agencies (EA) and reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission in the community.

The Government will arrange a free, one-off COVID-19 testing service for FDHs staying in boarding facilities. The testing agency, Prenetics, will shortly deploy staff to licensed EAs providing placement services to deliver specimen bottles.

Specimens will then be collected within two days. Cases with positive results will be relayed to the Centre for Health Protection for follow-up.

From August 8 to 10, the Government will also distribute masks to FDHs staying in EAs' boarding facilities via licensed agencies providing placement services.

To shorten the time that FDHs need to stay in such boarding facilities, the Immigration Department will process applications for changing employers in Hong Kong from FDHs whose employment contracts have expired as soon as possible.

The Government has gazetted specifications under the Prevention & Control of Disease (Regulation of Cross-boundary Conveyances & Travellers) Regulation to impose conditions based on public health grounds to further reduce the number of imported COVID-19 cases.

Since the specifications came into effect on July 25, the number of FDHs coming from specified places has dropped markedly.

The Government has earlier extended the social distancing measures, including the prohibition on group gatherings of more than two people in public places.

As of August 2, 12 FDHs have been fined $2,000 each for breaching the direction on prohibition of group gatherings in public places.

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