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Patients wait at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Jordan during the city’s fifth Covid-19 wave. Photo: Jelly Tse

Hong Kong to increase beds in public hospitals to 2,500 for Covid-19 patients, reschedule elective surgical operations to ease strain on healthcare system

  • Hospital Authority says 2,500 beds in public hospitals to be reserved for Covid-19 patients, up from 1,200 previously, as rise in infections affects services
  • Rising caseload could put pressure on efforts to contain the virus, with contact tracing for scheduled premises slowed down or not being done at all, health expert warns

Hong Kong will double the number of public hospital beds allocated for Covid-19 patients to 2,500 and reschedule elective surgery to ease the strain on the healthcare system, authorities have said, while an expert has warned the daily caseload could soon surge to five digits if Omicron subvariants became dominant in five to 10 weeks.

The city on Friday logged 4,270 coronavirus infections, including 180 imported cases, and six virus-related deaths. Hong Kong’s total Covid-19 tally stands at 1,313,224 cases, with 9,454 linked fatalities.

Health authorities said on Friday there were currently 1,257 patients hospitalised for Covid-19, including 177 new admissions, while 18 and 29 of them were in critical and serious conditions, respectively.

Dr Larry Lee, a chief manager of the Hospital Authority. Photo: May Tse

Dr Larry Lee Lap-yip, a chief manager of the Hospital Authority, said 2,500 beds in public hospitals would be reserved for Covid-19 patients, up from 1,200 previously, while the schedule for elective surgery would be changed.

“Adjustments to [the number of] beds have entered their second phase. The continuous rise in infections has affected the services of public hospitals,” he said. “The service adjustment will be mainly on the non-emergency services, namely the elective surgical operations.”

Lee said although public hospitals had made preparations in terms of manpower and beds, it was “inevitable that more non-emergency services will be suspended” as the pandemic developed. “We call on residents to not lower their guard,” he added.

More staff would be transferred to the North Lantau Hospital Hong Kong Infection Control Centre, where eight wards were already in operation and more would be opened, Lee said. The treatment centre at AsiaWorld-Expo, currently on standby, would be put into service if necessary.

“For infected patients isolating at home, we encourage them to take part in our teleconsultation services via our hotline as medications will be delivered to their doorsteps afterwards,” he said.

Lee said since the city’s fifth Covid-19 wave, authorities had been working with private hospitals, which had offered their more affordable beds, adding collaboration would be ramped up when needed.

Covid-19 outbreaks at Hong Kong hospitals grow as leader warns of resources drain

Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu on Friday met a panel of health experts for the first time as leader and said authorities would consider their views when crafting anti-epidemic measures.

“The government will closely monitor and assess the epidemic’s situation and latest trends in order to formulate an anti-epidemic strategy that achieves the best outcome with the least cost,” he said, adding the experts’ advice was “much appreciated”.

The size of the panel was doubled last week to six members.

When asked about an article on boosting the city’s hybrid immunity published by two members of the panel, Secretary for Health Lo Chung-mau on Thursday said authorities would unify the release of information to avoid confusing the public.

Respiratory medicine expert Dr Leung Chi-chiu. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Meanwhile, respiratory medicine expert Dr Leung Chi-chiu, also the former chairman of the Hong Kong Medical Association’s advisory committee on communicable diseases, said the more transmissive subvariants BA.4, BA.5 and BA.2.12.1 had started spreading in the community, accounting for about 120 cases each day.

The proportion of such infections has increased from 2 per cent earlier this month to 3 per cent, according to health authorities. Hong Kong on Friday recorded 229 new cases of such subvariants.

“If these 120 cases [double] every week or two weeks … these variants combined can possibly catch up with the number of BA.2.2 cases in five to 10 weeks,” Leung told a radio programme.

By that time, all subvariant cases, including the dominant BA.2.2 strain, could combine for a five-digit daily tally, he warned.

“Like in Singapore, half of the infections are BA.5. There might be a few thousand cases of the previous strain, in addition to a few thousand cases of the new one. The daily caseload in Singapore is close to 10,000 on average,” Leung told the Post.

Hong Kong’s daily cases surpass 4,000, health chief to meet Covid advisers

His estimation was based on the city’s infection count on Thursday, which at 4,375 exceeded the 4,000 mark for the first time since a rebound in June.

Health authorities had noted the doubling of caseloads, consisting mainly of BA.2.2 infections, occurring every two weeks or so. Leung said he believed the same, or a faster rate of increase, would happen with subvariant cases.

But he noted the overall rate of increase in infections had slowed to about 20 per cent each week instead of the roughly 90 per cent seen in early June.

The large number of cases had started to affect efforts to contain the virus, with contact tracing for scheduled premises slowing down or not being done at all, he added.

“The rebound may continue as a result,” Leung said.

01:53

Covid-19 still a global health emergency, says WHO as new Omicron subvariants emerge

Covid-19 still a global health emergency, says WHO as new Omicron subvariants emerge

Responding to Leung, Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan from the Centre for Health Protection said predicting when caseloads would peak or drop was difficult.

“Of course we do not hope the figure will increase swiftly or significantly as we are worried that it will increase the burden on the healthcare system,” she said.

But Leung’s projection was questioned by another epidemiologist Professor Benjamin Cowling, who argued the infected population had an adequate level of immunity against subvariants.

Cowling expressed doubt that the new subvariants posed much of a threat to the city, where most infections involved BA.2.2.

“It seems the people who got BA.2 are protected. They can’t [be reinfected with] BA.4 or BA.5 or BA.2.12.1 in most cases. Maybe a small number can, but mostly they can’t,” he said. “That’s different from the situation in Europe, where there was a lot of BA.1 before BA.2. BA.1 doesn’t provide immunity against BA.4 and BA.5.”

People queue up for coronavirus vaccines at Kwun Chung Sports Centre in Jordan. Photo: Dickson Lee

Health authorities on Thursday said there were so far fewer than 10 cases of reinfections during the fifth wave.

“Dr [Leung Chi-chiu] is correct that the number of BA.4 and BA.5 is doubling more quickly, but still not explosively, not like in Europe,” Cowling said.

“The reproductive number is much lower because of immunity … We don’t really have any more stringent measures now than we did in the fifth wave, in fact it’s less.”

Most Hong Kong Covid inpatients are elderly from community; 3,805 cases logged

Separately, the city’s flagship airline Cathay Pacific confirmed that several of its employees had tested positive after attending a private dinner on July 5, adding that they did not violate government and company guidelines.

“All of them followed social-distancing protocols, took a rapid antigen test before joining the event and used the ‘Leave Home Safe’ app and vaccine passes,” its spokesman said, adding that the government and the company were notified of their positive results.

“They have been placed under home isolation or in quarantine facilities and we are providing them with the necessary support and assistance.”

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