Hong Kong Can Still Achieve Covid Zero, Official Says

Hong Kong authorities are liaising with private hospitals to make space for Covid patients as the city battles its worst wave yet of the virus, which is claiming the lives of at least a hundred people a day.

The government is sending more government hospital patients who are being treated for ailments other than Covid-19 to private facilities if they are in a stable condition and in recovery, to free up beds in the public system, health officials said at a press briefing Sunday. Some private hospitals are admitting mild-symptom Covid patients, they said.

© Bloomberg Hong Kong Mortuaries Bring in Mobile Fridges as Deaths Surge“We will continue to be in touch with private hospitals to reduce pressure on public hospitals,” said Larry Lee, chief manager of the Hospital Authority.

The role of the city’s private hospitals in the pandemic was questioned by China’s Vice Premier Han Zheng in a meeting with Hong Kong representatives Sunday, according to media reports. The city’s health system and morgues are under the pressure from a record outbreak that’s pushed its death rate to one of the highest in the world.

The Chinese vice premier met with Hong Kong representatives in the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and discussed the pandemic situation in the city, HK01 said, citing unidentified people. Han said both private and public hospitals should perform their duties in treating and saving people, according to the report. 

The central government firmly supports the city’s anti-epidemic measures and urged its government to reduce serious illness and deaths from the virus among the elderly as soon as possible, HK01 cited Han as saying.

Fatalities from the pandemic have been concentrated in the under-vaccinated elderly and the virus has spread to more than 850 care facilities – including those that house disabled residents – sparking concern of worse to come.

Hong Kong reported 31,008 Covid cases and 153 deaths Sunday. Although reported infection counts were less than 40,000 for the second straight day, after rising to more than 50,000 in the three days prior, officials said the decline could be due to unreported rapid testing results and because of the “weekend effect.” 

Authorities would need another week or more to determine whether case numbers had peaked, the officials said. 

Public hospitals are expected to repurpose half of their beds for Covid-19 patients by the end of this week to deal with the rise in case numbers, the South China Morning Post cited Hospital Authority Chairman Henry Fan as saying in an interview.

Fan said the plan follows the advice of top mainland Chinese epidemiologist Liang Wannian, according to the newspaper. The Hospital Authority originally proposed to assign 30% of beds in public facilities for Covid treatment, the report said. 

Nine projects constructed with the help of China will provide about 50,000 beds and will significantly enhance Hong Kong’s isolation capabilities, Chief Secretary for Administration John Lee said in a blog post on Sunday. Some of the facilities are expected to be completed this month, and the others in April or later, he said. 

“With the increase of isolation facilities, coupled with effective large-scale testing, Hong Kong will have the strength to reverse the upward trend of the epidemic to a downward one, so as to control the epidemic development and reach zero cases,” Lee said.

The authorities are working on a citywide compulsory testing scheme of its entire population of 7.4 million. The government will devise a plan based on the situation in Hong Kong and will communicate details to the public so they can understand and prepare, Lee said. The government will ensure a stable and sufficient supply of food and necessities throughout the testing process, he said.

Hong Kong’s financial markets will remain open in the event of restrictions being imposed on residents, including stocks, derivatives, bonds, currencies and foreign exchange, the city’s Financial Secretary Paul Chan said in a separate blog post on Sunday.