Hong Kong must brace for ‘catastrophe’ if coronavirus infections explode into the hundreds daily, health authority chief warns
- Hospital Authority chairman Henry Fan says city has five plans prepared, each with a backup, and the final one would be to address doomsday scenario
- Among contingency measures are review of self-sufficiency in protective gear, and more quarantine facilities, as city ‘cannot let its guard down’
Hong Kong has no room to let its guard down and must brace for a “catastrophic” scenario should the number of daily coronavirus infections surge into the hundreds, the city’s health authority chief has said.
One measure would be a review on self-sufficiency in protective gear in the long run, Hospital Authority chairman Henry Fan Hung-ling said on a Saturday radio programme.
“After the pandemic began, the Hospital Authority prepared a set of contingency plans,” Fan said, adding there were five such proposals. “The aim was to reserve isolation facilities for those who needed them most. Although the situation has eased recently, we are still actively preparing backups [for worse scenarios].”
On the fifth and final plan, Fan said: “It is to prepare for catastrophic scenarios in case Hong Kong observes an explosive rate of infections, say, a surge of hundreds or even more than a thousand cases per day, when all hospital beds are full.