Authorities may move mass Covid-19 screening to April so they can focus on care for elderly patients as Hong Kong logs more than 30,000 new cases

Name: Omicron spreads rapidly through Hong Kong care homes as city tops global Covid death rate
Uploaded: 2022-03-08T05:47:36.000Z
Duration: 4 min 13 s
Description: Omicron spreads rapidly through Hong Kong care homes as city tops global Covid death rate

City leader Carrie Lam will also meet representatives from public and private hospitals to discuss allocation of resources

Hair salons, which have been shut since February 10, can welcome back customers on Thursday, but use of vaccine pass will be mandatory

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An elderly resident is evacuated from a local nursing home earlier this year after a coronavirus case was reported at the facility. Photo: Edmond So

Elizabeth Cheung,Gary Cheung,Gigi ChoyandVictor Ting

Published: 1:47pm, 8 Mar 2022Updated: 3:15pm, 9 Mar 2022

Hong Kong could postpone its Covid-19 mass testing to next month to focus instead on reducing severe coronavirus infections and deaths among the elderly, the Post has learned, as epidemiologists estimated the fifth wave peaked late last week.

As part of the shift in emphasis, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor would likely give an update on Wednesday on how hospital resources in public and private sectors would be allocated for epidemic control, a source familiar with the matter said.

The source revealed top officials were considering the shift in strategy as a result of the changing situation of the alarming number of fatalities among the old, saying: “Now the priority is to reduce the death rate and care for the elderly.”

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Omicron spreads rapidly through Hong Kong care homes as city tops global Covid death rate

Lam herself had said some form of mass testing could take place in March, but the source said: “The Hong Kong government only put March as a planning parameter. The central government has never set a time frame.”

On Tuesday, Lam met representatives of the Hong Kong Private Hospitals Association on their role in supporting the fight against Covid-19 and they were scheduled to hold talks with health minister Sophia Chan Siu-chee on Wednesday, the insider revealed.

Private hospitals are under pressure to take up a greater role in treating patients after Chinese Vice-Premier Han Zheng, the state leader overseeing the city’s affairs, criticised them for their alleged reluctance in handling some of the overflow from public hospitals.

To better cope with the backlog of patients, Queen Elizabeth Hospital will dedicate its resources, including its estimated 2,000 beds, to exclusively treating cases, becoming the third public facility to do so, according to another source.