【明報專訊】Financial Secretary Paul Chan contracted COVID-19 during his foreign visit last week. After returning to Hong Kong this week, his case was assessed by the Department of Health as a "case of recovery" that was not contagious, and Paul Chan was exempted from the quarantine requirement. This has led to quite a lot of discussion. The government has emphasised that the approach to handling similar cases has been in place for several months. Over the past month, there have been hundreds of similar cases, and the issue of special privileges is not involved. The reality, however, is that ordinary citizens had no idea about this arrangement before. What the public remembers more clearly is what Chief Executive John Lee said early this week, i.e., a Secretary of Department needs to be in quarantine if he or she has a positive nucleic acid test result.