Feel strongly about these letters, or any other aspects of the news? Share your views by emailing us your Letter to the Editor at letters@scmp.com 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. In the government press conference on Wednesday, the chief executive announced ambitious goals to reduce Covid-19 deaths by creating more than 16,000 extra beds in public and temporary hospitals, and by converting public spaces, including seven sports grounds, into isolation and respite facilities for infected elderly patients who require health monitoring. Elderly Covid-19 patients who have mild symptoms, or who are assessed to be fit for hospital discharge but for whom home isolation may be risky, can be transferred to these facilities. Such plans raise some concerns. First, an appropriate assessment will need to be made of each patient’s fitness to be discharged and admitted to an isolation facility. Otherwise, the assumption that patients can instead be taken care of in these facilities may very well lead to a compromise of the criteria for discharge, resulting in premature discharges to increase patient turnover. This would risk patient safety and create the potential for infecting others in the community. Second, the number of beds in these new isolation facilities may be insufficient to cope with the three-way influx of patients discharged from hospitals, those coming from residential care homes, and elderly arriving from the wider community. In planning for these facilities, the government should ensure that the number of beds will remain on par with the hospitalisation rate and need for post-discharge monitoring. Third, it is unclear what the required staffing ratio for these new facilities will be, and whether our staffing recruitment strategies can feasibly get us to this goal. We must have a clear implementation plan with a timeline for the recruitment of nurses and carers for patients. Hospital Authority staff have already been stretched too thin. The government must expedite the process at which new nursing personnel, such as those from the private sector and nursing schools, are recruited and trained. We need to take a scientific approach to our current public health challenges, making decisions about discharge that take into account the rapidly changing rules, and making beds and staffing arrangements based on predictive data. Creating more hospital beds without having enough beds for respite or staff to care for patients in isolation is a recipe for more problems – problems that can be avoided with a bit of foresight. Emily Ma, Sha Tin Communities can fight Covid-19, even if government can’t After President Xi Jinping told Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor to “mobilise all forces and resources” to fight Covid-19, property developers and business leaders rushed to offer land and money. Yet without the central government’s help, Lam can hardly mobilise any forces outside the local government. It’s time we, the people, answered the call of our fellow Hongkongers. If the government can’t help us, let’s help one another. Many of those infected with Covid-19 are self-isolating at home and are feeling helpless and forgotten. For starters, business owners and mutual aid committees can create social media groups to help. Patients could post their needs in the group – be it food, medicine, or any other daily necessity – and I’m sure neighbours will help bring those things to their doorsteps. This is just an example. Let’s be creative. Stop blaming the government for its incoherent strategy in handling the pandemic. After all, the situation is changing quickly and it’s out of an incompetent leader’s depth. That said, the government must deliver its message clearly. If a long-held position is no longer attainable and a new course of action is required, admit it. The drip-drip release of information by different officials and experts will only create confusion and panic. Confusing messaging leads to panic buying When devising plans for compulsory universal testing, community and business leaders’ opinions should also be taken into account. The media has an important role to play. Reporting on government plans and ideas that are still being worked out should be done with the utmost care. Meanwhile, the public must always exercise common sense when dealing with unconfirmed reports and rumours on social media. The battle against Covid-19 is long and hard, but if we fight it together, we will win. Tommy Lam, Diamond Hill Give us honesty, not false promises, for border reopening Pre-Covid, three quarters of arrivals in Hong Kong were from mainland China. Most this traffic was via Hong Kong’s border with Guangdong. It is rational to wish to open the historically busiest border. But the decision to allow quarantine-free arrivals is at the discretion of mainland national and regional administrations. It is reasonable, then, to ask what conditions Hong Kong would need to meet before quarantine-free travel would be permitted. We failed to reopen borders in 2021, despite months of no local infections. If Guangdong is targeting zero-Covid, then reopening the border with Hong Kong is not realistic. If our mainland neighbours can provide clear conditions, then Hong Kong can balance the benefits of quarantine-free travel versus the cost of implementing the necessary policies. It is possible that our neighbours are unable to provide more than they have. That is understandable. Hong Kong can set its policy after an open discussion. Adrian Mowat, Stanley Jockey Club must be transparent about its spending We refer to Dr Eva Tsang’s letter (“Teachers must use multimedia tools wisely”, March 8 ) discussing the Open English textbook project sponsored by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust. Similar to the textbook scheme, a wide range of education projects have been supported by the trust’s annual community donation of about HK$4 billion. We recently looked into the Teachers of English Education Nexus, an e-learning network at the University of Hong Kong, jointly funded by the Education Bureau and the trust. Despite the promise of the project, many resources on the network website are no longer available. In response to our enquiries, the Jockey Club says that it does not disclose project reports to third parties. As a non-profit organisation, the Jockey Club relies on a government-granted monopoly on gambling for its enormous amount of revenue. We urge it to be as transparent as the government regarding its community projects. Yuting Chen and Zhen Niu, Kowloon Tong