Coronavirus Hong Kong: Carrie Lam confirms universal testing still on the cards, but ‘long lead time’ needed for roll-out
- ‘We won’t do it for the sake of doing it, or do it to fulfil an order [from the chief executive],’ Lam said of the testing push. ‘It should be done to lead the city out of the pandemic’
- She also said heads of the city’s private hospitals had pledged to step up their contributions to Hong Kong’s anti-epidemic fight
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor made her first public appearance in two weeks on Wednesday, revealing that the heads of the city’s private hospitals had agreed to step up their efforts in the combatting the coronavirus outbreak.
Speaking at a press conference, Lam also gave updates on other aspects of the city’s anti-pandemic fight, including a universal testing drive aimed at curbing a raging fifth wave of coronavirus infections. The mass testing was first announced at Lam’s last public appearance on February 22.
Wednesday’s appearance came after calls by state leader Han Zheng for stronger and more decisive leadership in the health crisis, and signalled an expansion of Lam’s role in communicating pandemic-related messages to the public.
Is ‘zero-Covid’ still the goal?
Lam said that debates over whether the city had decided “live with the virus” instead of pursuing its long-held “dynamic zero-infection” goal were now irrelevant, but insisted the government would never stop aggressively fighting the pandemic, even as cases continued to surge, adding that “every life matters”.
“At this stage, it is meaningless to argue whether we are adopting a ‘living with virus’ or ‘zero-Covid’ approach, but I can tell you with 100 per cent certainty that the Hong Kong government will never adopt the so-called ‘lying flat’ attitude suggested by others in society to deal with the pandemic,” she said. “That means we won’t do nothing to fight the pandemic.”
She added that the authorities were following the orders of mainland Chinese President Xi Jinping to ensure the health of Hongkongers and uphold the country’s “high standards to fight this arduous anti-epidemic war”.
Daily press conferences
Lam said high-level daily press conferences would be led by her and relevant ministers starting at 11am every day except Tuesdays, when her weekly de facto cabinet meetings are held.