Hong Kong experts urge city to stay vigilant as WHO declares end to Covid-19 global public health emergency
- Residents advised to get vaccines and booster shots to keep themselves safe because ‘battle is far from over’
- Authorities to consider WHO’s advice and review epidemic response level after assessing local situation
The agency announced on Friday that Covid-19 no longer warranted the status of a global emergency, more than three years after it raised the disease to its highest alert level. The decision came following a recommendation from its emergency committee, which met the day before.
Local experts called the end to the emergency status a milestone but urged local authorities and residents to keep their guard up.
Stressing the battle was far from over, government pandemic adviser Professor Lau Yu-lung from the University of Hong Kong (HKU) on Saturday said measures carried out under the emergency status should be made regular, including testing coronavirus levels in sewage and obtaining data on infections from public hospitals and private clinics.
“We cannot go from one extreme to another, from fear to lying flat and doing nothing,” he told the Post, urging residents to continue with their normal lives while paying attention to personal hygiene.
Professor Ivan Hung Fan-ngai, an infectious disease expert at HKU, said the Omicron subvariant had grown relatively weak, while infections and vaccinations had formed a sufficient immunity barrier in communities to prevent large-scale outbreaks.