Health officials also clarified that the deaths of two patients who were reported to have succumbed before being admitted to hospital were already counted under the Hospital Authority’s tally.

As of Wednesday night, 78 patients were in critical condition – 52 were unvaccinated – while 116 were in serious condition, 64 of whom were not inoculated.

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Visiting mainland expert Liang Wannian, leader of the National Health Commission’s Covid Response Expert Team, said the priority for Hong Kong was to reduce infections, serious cases and deaths, as well as to boost vaccination among the elderly.

He noted that the public was playing its part in fighting the virus by wearing masks, washing hands, maintaining social distancing and avoiding going out unless necessary.

“We should have confidence and not overly worry ... Mankind can definitely beat Covid-19. Hong Kong can definitely defeat the virus,” he told the media.

As an expert advising the city on the worsening fifth wave, he said the team was still trying to assess the situation. Although he did not mention a lockdown or universal testing, Liang suggested the need to forge a “maximum consensus” on how to fight the pandemic.

Earlier on Wednesday, sources told the Post there were differences in views on the ideal timing for the mass screening. Advisers from mainland China believed it was better to do it earlier while Hong Kong experts suggested that authorities should wait until after the fifth wave had peaked, as there was a lack of isolation facilities and increased risks of infection from keeping people confined in small spaces during a lockdown.

“We will analyse and study the city’s pandemic situation and its trend with the experts from Hong Kong, establish the maximum consensus, and put forward suggestions,” Liang said. “We are confident that Hong Kong will overcome the pandemic.”

He added that patients with severe or mildly severe conditions should be centralised, while those with mild symptoms should be sent to makeshift hospitals, known as fangcang or “square cabin”.

He also said the focus should be on care homes for the elderly and facilities dedicated to people with physical or mental disabilities, as well as children.

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On the way forward, Liang stressed that the “final decision rests with the SAR government”, expressing confidence it would find the most effective measures to control the epidemic, save lives and reduce deaths.

Sources said Liang went to the Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau to discuss details of the mass testing on Thursday, the fourth day of his visit. Speaking to the media, Liang said he met health officials and experts, including University of Hong Kong (HKU) professors Gabriel Leung and Yuen Kwok-yung, as well as Chinese University’s David Hui Shu-cheong.

In Beijing, Xia Baolong, director of the State Council’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, convened the seventh meeting of a top-level group that coordinates help for Hong Kong’s Covid-19 fight, calling on local officials to take action.

“The responsible officials of the SAR government must be courageous, shoulder heavy responsibilities, play a leadership role, and fulfil their inaugural oath with practical actions to fight the epidemic,” he said.

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On Thursday, HKU’s Yuen, also a government adviser on the pandemic, estimated that only 20 or 30 per cent of the elderly living in care homes were not yet infected, and the city had missed the best timing to make vaccination for ageing residents mandatory.

“Unfortunately, the elderly have paid a high price in the fifth wave, with a high mortality rate. Most of them are unvaccinated and have chronic illnesses.”

Yuen said he could not estimate when the outbreak would peak, warning caseloads might not dip till the virus had made its way through the entire population.

On universal testing, Yuen doubled down on his belief that the effectiveness of the exercise would be low if there were not enough isolation facilities for positive cases unearthed.

Regarding the plan to set up testing centres, a source said most government departments would be involved in operating the 400 to 500 sample collection centres, and that testing appointments would be made online to avoid large crowds and long queues.

The plan was for families to book time slots together, instead of individuals making appointments according to their identity card numbers, the insider added. Bookings will also be available through post offices, while outreach teams will help the elderly with testing.

While most of the population would have to undergo screening, another source said babies would be exempted from the exercise, adding that expert advice would be sought on the age at which children would be tested.

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Currently, the government has just 19 fixed testing centres – mostly in community halls – and 43 mobile ones operated by different contractors. The mass screening would see most schools in Hong Kong transformed into extra testing venues.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor previously said every person in the city would have to undergo three mandatory tests as part of the drive.

Residents will also receive KN95 masks and rapid testing kits to screen themselves between compulsory tests.

Previously, sources had said the mass testing could begin on March 26.

While authorities had previously indicated that a website for people to report positive rapid antigen test (RAT) results would come online this week, officials on Thursday only said this would be ready “in due course”, pending functional checks.

Yuen said: “We estimate there might be hundreds of thousands of people testing positive by RAT … as we have already seen some 50,000 confirmed cases these two days.”

A source from the Hospital Authority said it was planning to transform three hospitals into designated facilities for Covid-19 patients in the coming one to two weeks, providing an extra 1,000 beds.

The three venues under consideration are Ruttonjee in Wan Chai, Tung Wah Group of Hospitals Fung Yiu King Hospital in Sandy Bay and Haven of Hope Hospital in Tseung Kwan O, according to the source.

A private hospital run by the Chinese University of Hong Kong is also planning to open 24 beds for Covid-19 patients next week in a bid to take some strain off of overstretched public institutions as cases continue to soar.

The exact date the beds would become available depended on when the Department of Health granted the CUHK Medical Centre a special licence to operate them, Dr Fung Hong, the hospital’s executive director and CEO, told the Post on Thursday. The licence will make the hospital in Sha Tin, which only opened early last year, the first private health care facility in the city with designated beds for Covid-19 patients.

Fung said the preliminary plan was to take in patients aged between 16 and 75, though the medical centre was still discussing with the Hospital Authority exactly what kind of patients they would take.

Though the city’s private hospitals do not technically offer Covid-19 treatment, some patients are currently receiving care at such facilities after testing positive following admission and becoming “stranded” due to delays in the Hospital Authority taking them in. Fung said there was already one Covid-19 patient under isolation at the CUHK Medical Centre.

‘Hong Kong private hospitals risk system collapse if they received Covid-19 patients’

In a statement, the CUHK Medical Centre said the Covid-19 ward would be located in the east wing of the hospital. Relevant upgrades, such as the installation of negative-pressure devices, have been undertaken to meet the appropriate standards for infection control.

All Covid-19 patients will be transported to the facility by ambulance and taken to the specific ward via designated routes and lifts. The hospital said those patients would not enter other areas or come into contact with non-Covid patients within the facility.

The Department of Health said on Thursday that it had received an application from the private hospital last week to operate a new ward, and expected processing to be completed soon.

In December 2020, the CUHK facility said it would be willing to take in patients with mild symptoms if there were not enough beds in public hospitals. That eventuality has come to pass, with hundreds of thousands of cases confirmed over the past two months, and hospitals packed to the gills in recent weeks.

On Wednesday, Dr William Ho Shui-wei, chairman of the Hong Kong Private Hospitals Association, warned that private facilities risked system collapse if they took in Covid-19 patients, saying they were already experiencing staff shortages due to infections and exposure.

Ho revealed that an unnamed new private hospital was working to devote a whole ward to Covid-19 patients, but said such a move would be “hardly possible for existing hospitals which have already been operating with existing hardware structure”.

The government on Thursday night also announced that it would distribute more than 230,000 sets of rapid test kits to residents, cleaning workers and property management staff at 31 estates across seven districts where sewage testing results showed relatively high viral loads.

The estates targeted are Kwai Tsing, Tuen Mun, Tsuen Wan, Kwun Tong, Eastern, Wong Tai Sin and Sha Tin.

Meanwhile, Secretary for the Civil Service Patrick Nip Tak-kuen returned to the office for work on Thursday after completing a week of quarantine sparked by his wife’s infection with Covid-19. Nip and his family members tested negative in rapid tests on Wednesday and Thursday.

The arrangement does not apply to those with valid vaccination exemption certificates issued on medical grounds.

Additional reporting by Elizabeth Cheung and Victor Ting