Coronavirus: Hong Kong health minister slams report suggesting internal conflict on quarantine, city logs over 10,000 cases 3 times in 4 days
- Secretary for Health Lo Chung-mau does not name news outlet but says report had cost the media its integrity, three days after Bloomberg piece
- Meanwhile, city logs highest daily tally since March 24
Hong Kong’s health minister has strongly rejected a news report alleging internal conflict among officials over whether to scrap hotel quarantine by November, questioning media professionalism behind it and deploring the impact on the city’s battle against Covid-19.
A government source told the Post the administration had not decided on further easing quarantine rules for overseas arrivals and was focused on combating the Covid-19 surge, which on Sunday pushed the daily tally past the 10,000 mark for the third time in four days.
Secretary for Health Lo Chung-mau voiced his disapproval after American news outlet Bloomberg published a report that cited “people” claiming Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu hoped to cancel hotel quarantine by November, but officials were split on the decision.
Without naming the agency, Lo slammed the Bloomberg report for being inaccurate. Writing on his official blog, he said: “There are indeed a lot of viewers, but the report led readers to mistakenly believe that the government is divided and contradictory in the fight against the pandemic.
“The loss is not only the media’s professionalism, but it may also affect the government’s fight against the pandemic. As one of the major officials, I find it necessary to clarify.”
Lo likened the report to “Chinese palace dramas” – fictional stories set in real historical periods – adding: “It did not seem to matter whether the insider information was true or not. It was widely reported by other media as if it was true.”