Tears, fears and angry outbursts: Hong Kong customs officers help track down patients’ contacts as Covid-19 cases surge
- More than 650 volunteers from disciplined services join contact tracing teams amid sharp rise in infections
- Some patients resist revealing who they were with, others question being sent to quarantine centres
The female patient had not disclosed that her grandparents were at the gathering, and when Li called to confirm what she had learned, the woman broke down.
“She was sad and felt guilty about incriminating the whole family, as it meant they would have to spend Lunar New Year in the quarantine camp,” said Li, one of 143 customs officers who volunteered to work at Hong Kong’s three contact-tracing command centres.
Li, 31, told the woman there was no need to feel guilty, but made the point that she was duty bound under the law to reveal her close contacts, for their own sake.
“She feared that no one would take care of her grandparents at the quarantine facility. She realised eventually that she had been wrong to not reveal the truth in the first place,” Li said.
Infection numbers in Hong Kong’s fifth wave of Covid-19 which began last month have soared since the Lunar New Year holiday – a traditional season of family gatherings. Daily numbers broke past 1,000 on February 9, hitting a record high of 6,116 on February 17.
One confirmed patient Li dealt with had meals with more than 50 people over the festive season.
