Head of Hong Kong’s Centre for Health Protection moved, stripped of coronavirus-related duties in ‘unusual’ mid-pandemic personnel change
- Insiders insist move is not demotion for outgoing controller Dr Wong Ka-hing, but one of them notes it is odd to ‘change a general in the midst of a war’
- Leadership churn follows questions over the agency’s competence in handling contact tracing, lockdown operations
The Department of Health confirmed the changing of the guard at the Centre for Health Protection late on Thursday night, announcing that controller Dr Wong Ka-hing would step aside and become the controller of public health services, a newly created position that will last for just half a year starting on Friday.
Dr Ronald Lam Man-kin, deputy director of health, will take over Wong’s old job as head of the agency.
A spokeswoman for the health department said the centre had faced an “increasing workload” combating the Covid-19 pandemic, and was set to prepare and roll out the city’s coronavirus vaccination campaign in coming months. The latest personnel changes would lessen the workload of the controller at a “critical moment in the anti-pandemic effort”, she added.
Two medical sources with knowledge of the matter told the Post that following the changes, Lam would lead the fight against Covid-19 while Wong would be responsible for other diseases, such as the flu, and community health services. While they believed the change was not a demotion for Wong, one of the sources nonetheless observed that to “change a general in the midst of a war” was “highly unusual”.