Coronavirus: wrong Nepalese man sent from quarantine to hospital after possible name mix-up
- Authorities say language issues might have played a part in the mistaken transfer of father for medical care when it actually was his son who tested positive
- But officials insist they have enough resources at the moment to manage ethnic minorities staying at government-run isolation centres
The mistake was revealed by Dr Wong Ka-hing, controller of the Centre for Health Protection, as the city reported 21 more people were infected with the disease, including 12 with a history of recent travel, taking the total to 935.
Wong also revealed that nearly 2 per cent of more than 4,000 patient samples collected by private doctors and sent to labs under the Department of Health in the past month had tested positive. “This is considered to be a high level,” Wong said. The figure for people returning from overseas is 1.1 to 1.2 per cent.
Authorities sent letters to private doctors on Monday night urging them to carry out Covid-19 testing for patients, regardless of the severity of symptoms or whether they had recently travelled. “We hope private doctors could step up testing for their patients.”
Were the names read wrongly, or were the father or the son heard wrongly?
The Nepalese man, 21, was staying at a government quarantine centre with his family when he was confirmed infected, but officials wrongly transferred his father to hospital on Monday night.