Letters | Coronavirus Hong Kong: deploy the humble pulse oximeter to ease pressure on the health care system

Readers discuss how DIY measurements of blood oxygen level can help focus care on Covid-19 patients who need it most, the usefulness of antiviral pills, and the city’s treatment of its domestic helpers

Coronavirus Hong Kong

Letters

Published: 11:30am, 22 Feb 2022

Why you can trust SCMP

Feel strongly about these letters, or any other aspects of the news? Share your views by emailing us your Letter to the Editor at [email protected] or filling in this Google form. Submissions should not exceed 400 words, and must include your full name and address, plus a phone number for verification.

Given the unique situation in Hong Kong with high numbers of the population living in tight quarters, the number of Covid-19 cases is bound to increase exponentially .

Testing the entire population helps to discover index cases. However, dealing with the increasing number of positive cases will be a dilemma for the Hong Kong government. Quarantine camps, emergency rooms and hospitals are already stretched beyond their limits. By necessity, many patients will be left out in the cold and fend for themselves. Morbidity and mortality will increase.

Most Omicron cases are mild, especially in the younger population. However, it would be important to isolate those cases that need urgent care.

This decision can be made using a simple and inexpensive device to check the transcutaneous partial pressure of oxygen (PO2), a five-second test using a pulse oximeter (costing US$20 in online stores). This tells us the oxygen level in the blood, and can be done by patients, mobile screeners or practising physicians.

Those with no symptoms with PO2 above 92 per cent can be managed at home, with phone follow-up for high-risk cases by trained medical personnel.

Managing patients at home using PO2 as a guide is not the solution to the current Covid-19 problem in Hong Kong. However, it will help to alleviate the overly crowded quarantine camps, emergency rooms and hospitals, while isolating those who need more urgent care.

Testing the entire population for Covid-19, further increase in booster immunisations, social distancing, masks, gargling with saline after visiting public areas and so on are all essential in curbing the spread of this terrible virus.

Dr John Yam, Seattle, US

Antiviral pills should be part of Hong Kong’s arsenal

Oral antiviral medications do not replace vaccination, but two such drugs have been proven effective in reducing incidence of hospital admissions of Covid-19 patients and death.

Paxlovid and Lagevrio are the only two oral antiviral treatments of value that are suitable for administration at home. These drugs are not without side effects and are generally restricted for use by adults who are at high risk of progressing to severe disease.

Apparently neither of these two oral antiviral drugs are available yet in Hong Kong. The antiviral treatment in use is remdesivir by intravenous injection, necessitating admission to a hospital bed – a rare find as of today.

As for other anti-coronavirus treatments, hardly any have been proven effective. Ivermectin is generally not thought to be of proven value. Some monoclonal antibodies that were in use before are no longer effective against the new Covid-19 variant Omicron.

It would be interesting to learn why Hong Kong apparently does not yet have any oral antiviral medication available.

Charles Wong, Tai Wai

City’s treatment of foreign helpers is shameful

On Sunday evening, we watched the closing of the Winter Olympics with its heartwarming message of joining hands across all peoples and nations, coming direct from Beijing.

But it seems some folks here in Hong Kong didn’t read the memo, as I woke up the next day to read of the totally inhumane treatment of foreign domestic helpers who had the bad luck to catch Covid-19, and who find themselves in a dystopian nightmare deprived of the basics of accommodation and medical care right here in “Asia’s world city”.

Shameful.

Bob Rogers, Sai Kung

Post