“The chief executive mainly targeted people who were starting rumours and spreading fake information,” Lo told reporters after a Legislative Council meeting. “There is a big difference between being ignorant and shameless.”

Among the rumours were that residents would be considered organ donors unless they applied to withdraw and that people would be sent to mainland China as living donors.

“[Some people] faked the number of withdrawals or exaggerated the figure. They were trying to plant evidence to create a fake phenomenon that the cross-border mutual mechanism will affect the public’s will in organ donation,” he said during the Legco meeting.

Lo, a liver transplant specialist before joining the government, said ill-intentioned people spreading fake information must be “condemned by the whole city”.

But he also urged people not to worry if they withdrew from the system because they were misled by false messages online.

“For the process of registering with or withdrawing from the organ donation register, it is absolutely a voluntary decision for the public. It is also their right to do so and it will not involve any illegal behaviour,” Lo said.

He added the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer and the Department of Health were looking to improve the register’s website, after criticism by lawmakers and the public that non-donors could also file withdrawal applications online.

The organ donation saga emerged earlier this week after health authorities revealed that the number of withdrawals had started to rise in December. That month, officials said they hoped a cross-border organ mechanism could be put in place after a four-month-old Hong Kong girl received a heart donated from the mainland.

In the same meeting on Thursday, lawmakers also passed a non-binding resolution initiated by medical and health sector lawmaker David Lam Tzit-yuen on speeding up collaboration with the mainland on organ transplants.

Hong Kong’s organ donation rate is among the lowest in the world, with just 29 people donating their organs after death last year, and 23 giving a kidney or part of their liver as living donors.

Lo revealed that patients in the queue for a kidney transplant needed to wait five years on average, with the longest one taking 29 years. Those requiring heart, lung or liver transplants on average needed to wait two to three years.

On the other hand, more than 1,000 organs donated on the mainland last year could not be matched with suitable recipients.

Recalling an encounter with the mother of a 13-year-old-girl during his liver transplant training overseas 30 years ago, Lo said she wrote in the teenager’s medical record: “If my daughter cannot survive, I want her to survive in somebody else.”

“I was wondering back then when Hongkongers would have this spirit?” Lo said in his concluding remarks for the resolution.

Lo said Hongkongers had been part of the mainland’s organ donation system, with more than 2,500 people from the city joining the country’s transplant waiting list since 2015. In the same period, nearly 1,000 Hongkongers had received donated organs on the mainland. Nine residents had also donated 27 organs across the border to save the lives of 24 mainlanders.

Lawmakers urged the government to provide incentives to boost the organ donation rate.

“For example, organ donors could be given priority in getting a place at the government’s columbariums, as the facilities in Hong Kong could be the most expensive in the world,” Lam San-keung said.

Echoing the suggestion, Junius Ho Kwan-yiu asked if the government could provide free columbarium niches to organ donors or give them priority for a place.

“We could also cover all of the burial arrangements. For families who have lost their breadwinners, we could also cover one year [of living costs] and help them to secure jobs,” Ho said.

But Lo said organ donation was based on the principle of not expecting rewards for the exchange.

“Whether these returns would be seen as benefits or as a trade? We need to handle these different voices carefully,” he said.

Several lawmakers also urged the government to pass legislation so patients’ wishes to donate their organs would be respected by their families. Currently, their donation can be revoked if their families object to it.