Meanwhile, a 15-year-old girl among Wednesday’s infections triggered a compulsory testing notice for her residential block in Pok Fu Lam after she returned from the US on Sunday. She had left the city on December 15.

The Centre for Health Protection also said two Cathay Pacific routes from Los Angeles and Toronto would be hit with a two-week suspension after carrying four and three imported infections, respectively. The temporary ban starts on Wednesday until January 11.

With the Omicron variant spreading rapidly and more arrivals from various countries required to serve an initial four days of quarantine at the government’s Penny’s Bay facility on Lantau Island, it announced on Wednesday foreign domestic helpers would no longer complete their isolation there.

Domestic workers arriving in the city will instead be moved to the new Regala Skycity Hotel, also on Lantau. It will provide 1,138 rooms in addition to the 1,000 offered by two other properties, the Rambler Garden Hotel and Courtyard by Marriott Hong Kong.

Helpers who have been vaccinated in Hong Kong can use quarantine hotels designated for ordinary travellers.

The Labour Department said domestic helpers with a quarantine completion date on or after January 5 next year would be moved to the new location from January 1.

As authorities continue to tighten quarantine requirements for cargo aircrew, logistics industry leaders warned Hong Kong’s reputation as a global air freight hub was at risk. But a government coronavirus adviser insisted the measures still did not go far enough.

But Professor David Hui Shu-cheong of Chinese University said that even the three-day compulsory quarantine announced on Tuesday was insufficient and should be extended to five days to better detect the presence of Omicron.

Hong Kong Logistics Association president Elsa Yuen May-yee, speaking on the same show, said she feared ever-tightening quarantine rules would create a chain reaction, jacking up freight costs and prompting companies to relocate out of the city.

“Ten per cent of [aircrew] … might quit their jobs over the stricter measures, and we’re worried about a further tightening of rules,” she said. “It will influence Hong Kong’s logistics sector in the long run, which will lead to higher costs for consumers.”

Interviewed on another radio show, Dr Joseph Tsang Kay-yan, co-chair of the Medical Association’s advisory committee on communicable diseases, said Omicron had a higher infection rate than its predecessors, including Delta, but that the city still needed to strike a balance in how it reacted.

“The airline company may not have enough staff … under the new rules. It’s about balancing public health and business needs,” Tsang said.

Hong Kong to mandate hotel quarantine for cargo aircrew after violations

At a Tuesday press conference, Centre for Health Protection controller Dr Edwin Tsui Lok-kin pointed to a recent spike in Covid-19 cases involving Omicron as a warning that the risk of a community outbreak was “very high”.

Cathay confirmed after the press conference that two of its crew members who tested positive and preliminary-positive on Tuesday had violated self-isolation rules after returning to the city last week.

One of the two men triggered an overnight lockdown on Tuesday night in the Tuen Mun building where he lives, while a third Cathay crew member with a confirmed infection sparked mandatory testing in Discovery Bay.

No new coronavirus cases were discovered at either location.

Separately, the government also announced on Wednesday that it was adding Kazakhstan and Myanmar to its list of high-risk countries. The change means non-Hong Kong residents are barred from travelling to the city from the two places, and returning residents must be fully vaccinated and quarantine for 21 days.

The change takes effect from January 1, and brings the total number of places in the high-risk category to 118.