Coronavirus: health minister warns Hong Kong hospitals could become overstretched if city removes all travel curbs
- Secretary for Health Lo Chung-mau says government must ensure path forward is ‘a safe one’ and will not ‘cause any deaths’
- Representatives of catering industry renew calls for easing pandemic curbs further to avoid more closures and lay-offs.
Hong Kong is not ready to lift all travel restrictions, the city’s health minister has warned, arguing that relaxing the rules too soon could lead to a surge in coronavirus cases that would once again overstretch public hospitals.
Secretary for Health Lo Chung-mau on Sunday also said creating “a road map to resume normality” would be difficult as the government needed to remain prepared for the possible emergence of new Covid-19 variants, even as representatives of the catering industry renewed calls for easing pandemic curbs further to avoid more closures and lay-offs.
“The Hong Kong government, as the chief engineer that leads 7 million people in this fight against the pandemic, has to ensure that the road we are walking on is a safe one, that it will not be destroyed or cause any deaths,” he told a TV programme.
Daily coronavirus cases fell to their lowest level since July 21 on Sunday, with health authorities logging 3,897 infections, including 117 imported ones, and 10 more deaths.
The recent downward trend prompted health experts on Saturday to suggest authorities should consider scrapping all travel rules if the proportion of imported cases remained below 5 per cent of all infections recorded in the coming few weeks.