Opinion | Beyond the coronavirus pandemic, Hong Kong must take health and fitness more seriously

Covid-19 patients are much more likely to fall seriously ill if they have pre-existing chronic diseases. The outbreak should be a wake-up call to prevent chronic diseases both as an end in itself and as a way to fight future pandemics

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Published: 7:00am, 3 Apr 2020Updated: 7:00am, 3 Apr 2020

As Covid-19 infections rise around the world, including in Hong Kong, the city’s government has toughened measures to slow the spread of the global pandemic and head off a new wave of imported infections.

Even as the community’s attention is focused on the pandemic itself, it is noteworthy that infected patients are much more likely to fall seriously ill or die if they have pre-existing chronic diseases.

It is therefore imperative that the community at large, and the government in particular, should use Covid-19 as a wake-up call to work in earnest to prevent chronic diseases both as an end in itself, and as a way to fight future pandemics.

The good news is that most Hongkongers have been disciplined about taking precautions against Covid-19, whether it involves queuing overnight for masks or washing hands regularly. These actions have not only slowed the spread of Covid-19 in the city, they have also helped cut short this year’s flu season: it lasted for just five weeks and ended in February, about two months earlier than usual.

Positive tests for seasonal flu peaked in the week ending January 25, and the number quickly fell by two-thirds just two weeks later. The hospitalisation rate also dropped sharply. In fighting the novel coronavirus, Hongkongers have also succeeded in beating seasonal flu.

Indeed, might influenza be a more frightening threat than Covid-19? According to the World Health Organisation, between three million and five million people are seriously sickened by seasonal flu every year, with sometimes over half a million deaths in a single year.