Coronavirus: civil service chief admits to ‘gaps’ in Hong Kong’s pandemic response and vows review of efforts during Legco grilling
- Secretary for the Civil Service Patrick Nip reveals nearly quarter of government workforce had contracted Covid-19
- Asked about morale and ‘conscription mentality’ among staff circles, Nip says he will review performance and learn lessons
But Secretary for the Civil Service Patrick Nip Tak-kuen vowed to legislators on Monday that his department would “take stock” of its failings and determine how its performance could be improved.
“Some measures were not in the right place initially, while some have seen delays in implementation, causing inconvenience and impacting on the public,” he said. “We must take stock from this. I believe that for every step on the way, each department must take a look at how its mechanisms and procedures can be enhanced.”
Hong Kong confirmed 431 coronavirus cases on Monday, of which 16 were imported, a slight increase from the 429 infections logged on Sunday. Officials also reported 18 more deaths, including seven backlogged fatalities.
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Health authorities noted that one of the imported cases, an arrival from Nepal, had shown coronavirus symptoms 12 days after entering the city.
Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the communicable disease branch at the Centre for Health Protection (CHP), said an investigation would be conducted at the hotel where the patient underwent quarantine.
Chaung added that she would not rule out the possibility that the individual had contracted the virus locally or had become reinfected, noting the patient first contracted the virus in Nepal in February.
Nineteen schools also reported one infection each, involving 13 students and six teachers confirmed via daily rapid testing. None of the patients returned to their campuses upon testing positive. One of the students was from a school that last week reported a teacher had tested positive for the virus, but an investigation found no link between the two cases.
Chaung said it was unlikely that any coronavirus outbreaks had occurred as a result of schools resuming in-person classes, with most cases being reported in the wider community.
At the Penny’s Bay quarantine facility, 26 students sat their Diploma of Secondary Education exams at the site’s special assessment venue. The candidates consisted of 17 coronavirus patients and nine others who were undergoing mandatory quarantine.
Nip told a Legislative Council panel on public service that more than 46,000 civil servants, or 24.3 per cent of the 180,000-strong force, had contracted Covid-19, with over 90 per cent having returned to work upon recovery.
The minister added that 27 employees had been barred from accessing government buildings and deemed as “absent from work” as a result of failing to meet requirements under the vaccine pass.
Five of the group had since left the civil service while the other cases were being followed up, he said.
Nip also characterised the fifth wave as “rapid and fierce”, saying it had produced an exponential surge in coronavirus cases that had waylaid containment efforts.
“Even though we had made some preparations, for a brief period of time we failed to cope with the demand, which led to this time lag,” he said.
Pro-establishment lawmakers lined up to query the work of civil servants. New People’s Party’s Lai Tung-kwok, a former security minister, said the work of some high-profile health officials and members of the disciplined services was more visible, while others had not adequately demonstrated their efforts to the public.
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Ho Chun-yin, of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, said messages had circulated in civil service circles and social media groups purporting to show a “conscription mentality” of some public workers.
“How can the administration rally the morale of its workers when some are displaying this kind of attitude to serving the public at such a critical time?” Ho argued.
In response, Nip said officials would review work done during the fifth wave and learn appropriate lessons.
“Drawn from right across government departments, many civil servants have worked day and night in the fifth wave,” he said, adding about 69,000 of those employees were from the disciplined services, toiling in makeshift isolation facilities or lockdown operations.
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The 46,555 workers who fell ill with Covid-19, Nip added, spanned 78 bureaus and departments.
The vaccination rate among civil servants had hit 99 per cent for the first dose and 98 per cent for the second as of April 8, he revealed. Half of those who did not get inoculated had legitimate medical reasons, while the other half had a Covid-19 infection, which served as a substitute for one jab.
Separately, the CHP’s Scientific Committee on Vaccine Preventable Diseases called for seasonal flu shots to be administered at the same time as Covid-19 jabs, noting that authorities needed to make the inoculation process more convenient to achieve better coverage.
The vaccination drive could be incorporated into existing measures for care homes, the committee said, with priority also going to other high-risk groups, such as healthcare workers, elderly residents, children and pregnant women. However, it added that the overall risk of contracting seasonal influenza in the city remained low.
The tally of Covid-19 infections currently stands at 1,202,291, with 9,267 related deaths.
