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Chief Executive Carrie Lam meets mainland Chinese medical experts, including Dr Liang Wannian (to her right), in Hong Kng on Monday. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Coronavirus: Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam calls for calm after residents panic over possible lockdown

  • Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan does not rule out possibility of large-scale lockdown
  • Monday’s record-breaking 34,466 cases push overall number of infections to 205,780
Hong Kong’s leader has appealed for calm, insisting that no decision has been made yet on a citywide lockdown when compulsory universal testing for Covid-19 is launched next month, after the health minister triggered panic by revealing that such discussions were under way.

Authorities on Monday confirmed more than 34,000 new infections and 124 coronavirus-related deaths, as Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said her government was still assessing the extent of restrictions to impose, and urged the public not to be misled by rumours.

Residents escalated their panicked buying of basic goods and groceries, cleaning out supermarket shelves, after Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee did not rule out the possibility of a large-scale lockdown.

“We are still discussing, from the perspective of public health, how to make the best use of universal testing, we must reduce the flow of people to a certain extent … and citizens should not go out,” Chan said on a radio programme.

04:06

‘It's been a week now’: Covid-19 patient trapped at home shares frustration

‘It's been a week now’: Covid-19 patient trapped at home shares frustration

Asked if the city would need to announce the suspension of work and the stock market, Chan would only say that the government would monitor the situation and refer to the opinion of mainland Chinese experts.

“We are currently examining and judging to what extent the flow of people should be controlled,” she added.

Chief Executive Lam visited the Shenzhen Bay border crossing on Monday afternoon to welcome the third batch of mainland experts sent over to help Hong Kong fight the raging fifth wave of the pandemic.

Lam said “the practical situation of Hong Kong and the views in the community will be given consideration during the process” of deciding how to go about the universal testing exercise.

She said those who were panic-buying food and daily necessities had been misled by rumours. She stressed that supplies were normal amid close cooperation with neighbouring Shenzhen and Guangdong province, while air cargo was steady.

Lam said there was no need for residents to worry and “citizens should remain vigilant and follow closely the information dispatched by the government, to avoid being misled by rumours”.

In a separate video message, the chief executive said the coming two to three months would be critical in bringing the pandemic under control, and the government was thoroughly preparing the universal testing exercise to be held in March.

Lam said the rapid spread of the virus had left her government unable to cope, and in need of help from the mainland.

Construction of a 3,900-bed makeshift isolation facility in Tsing Yi was completed on Monday – taking just a week to build with the help of a mainland construction team.

According to sources, the government is considering a number of options in its discussion about the lockdown, including whether the operation should by be citywide or done on a rolling basis according to districts.

Officials were also weighing whether to halt public transport and allow residents to leave their homes if they tested negative with rapid screening kits, they revealed, adding nothing was being planned for the coming days.

Hong Kong shoppers in panic-buying frenzy over lockdown fears

“Things are still evolving, and different scales of lockdown mean quite different things,” one insider said.

It was understood the government had approached several large companies for feedback on the possible impact of the operation.

Under the universal screening plan that Lam unveiled last Tuesday, all residents will have to undergo three tests over 15 to 21 days, although the health chief conceded that the shorter the period, the better.

Chan added that some or all of the tests would be sent to mainland laboratories for analysis, as Hong Kong did not have the capacity to process the more than 22 million samples.

On Monday, authorities revealed another 124 infected residents had died, 87 of them in the past 24 hours and the remaining 37 prior to that but only reported now due to a backlog, taking the overall tally to 851.

03:31

Bodies pile up at hospitals and mortuaries as Hong Kong records 34,466 new Covid-19 cases

Bodies pile up at hospitals and mortuaries as Hong Kong records 34,466 new Covid-19 cases

The latest record-breaking 34,466 cases took the overall number of infections to 205,780, with just four of the latest cases imported.

Hong Kong’s infection tally has already exceeded that of the mainland, which now stands at 109,326.

Dr Albert Au Ka-wing, principal medical and health officer of the Centre for Health Protection, also offered new details about the first 442 fatalities of the fifth wave.

The breakdown by age was given as follows: four were between the ages of zero and nine; two were aged 10 to 19; 19 were aged 20 to 59; 35 were aged 60 to 69; 80 were aged 70 to 79; and 292 were 80 or above. The median age was 84.

A total of 359, or 81 per cent, were unvaccinated, while 44 had received one shot and the remaining 39 were fully inoculated.

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According to his analysis, the citywide death rate for fully vaccinated residents was 0.03 per cent, while for the unvaccinated, the figure was 0.27 per cent.

Of the 87 who died in past 24 hours, 67 involved residents who were not vaccinated, while 10 had received one shot and 10 had taken two. Forty-nine of the deaths were residents of care facilities.

As the number of fatalities climbs, mortuaries are coming under intense pressure to find room for the corpses. David Chan Kwok-shing from the Hospital Alliance Employees’ Alliance said some bodies continued to be left in wards as the morgues at the facilities remained full.

Patients were also again being forced to wait on beds outside accident and emergency departments, with the situation particularly severe at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Tuen Mun Hospital and Caritas Medical Centre, he warned.

“We had to move all beds indoors when the Hospital Authority demanded us to do so, but there isn’t enough space indoors, so we have to move them out again,” Chan said, adding the warmer weather in recent days had also prompted hospitals to move beds outside due to ease overcrowding.

Elsewhere, Mannings, one of the city’s two largest drug store chains, announced it would close over 50 of its more than 300 outlets from Tuesday to protect the health of staff and customers.

“We hope that the measures can ensure that our colleagues can maintain the operation of most stores in a healthy and safe environment,” it said in its Facebook page.

The chain’s pharmacy and hospital medicine pickup services will not be affected.

The revelation that authorities were considering a lockdown came a day after a senior official from the National Health Commission (NHC) said the city’s mass screening would yield better results if accompanied by restrictions on residents’ movements.

The mainland was sending 9,000 personnel to help carry out the testing, Li Dachuan said, confirming an earlier Post report.

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Pro-Beijing newspaper Ta Kung Pao backed district-level lockdowns, arguing in an editorial that Hong Kong should follow the mainland’s example in rooting out community infections.

Executive councillor Wong Kwok-kin cautioned that officials were weighing different scenarios in their discussions on the universal testing scheme.

“Officials are pondering district-based lockdowns or imposing lockdowns in different periods,” he said. “I think wholesale, citywide lockdowns are unrealistic and unlikely.”

Wong, from the Federation of Trade Unions, argued that authorities should only begin the screening when enough isolation spaces were available to cope with the number of newly identified carriers and when infections had peaked.

“It’s unrealistic to start mass testing within this week,” he said.

02:46

Hong Kong launches vaccine pass, tightens social distancing with 17,000 new Covid-19 cases

Hong Kong launches vaccine pass, tightens social distancing with 17,000 new Covid-19 cases

But fellow executive councillor Ronny Tong Ka-wah backed the idea of imposing a citywide lockdown for the first round of screening, which could last several days.

“During the first mass testing, all residents should be banned from leaving their homes, except personnel providing essential public service,” he said. “But there is no need for a citywide lockdown for the second or subsequent mass testing.”

The five-member team that arrived from the mainland on Monday is being led by Dr Liang Wannian, who also heads the NHC’s Covid Response Expert Team. They relieved a second team who had completed their 10-day mission. Liang offered a message of hope as he prepared to begin helping guide the city’s pandemic response.

“At the moment, the Covid-19 epidemic situation in Hong Kong remains serious. We will seize the moment and work hard and closely with local experts,” he said.

“We believe that with the central government’s determined support, Hong Kong government’s strong leadership and the unity of various local sectors, the city can overcome the epidemic soon.”

Additional reporting by Gigi Choy, Gary Cheung and Jack Tsang

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