Coronavirus: Chinese state leader pledges firm support for Hong Kong’s Covid-19 fight, takes aim at private hospitals over efforts

Vice-Premier Han Zheng meets Hong Kong delegates of country’s top advisory body, urges city authorities to prioritise care for elderly Covid-19 patients

Hong Kong confirms 31,008 new Covid-19 infections – the second day in a row case numbers have fallen – taking the city’s official tally to 471,617

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Residents queue up for Covid-19 testing at a mobile sample collection centre. Photo: Felix Wong

Published: 1:42pm, 6 Mar 2022Updated: 8:09am, 7 Mar 2022

A mainland Chinese state leader has pledged that Beijing will firmly support Hong Kong’s fight against its spiralling coronavirus epidemic by ensuring a steady supply of necessities, while calling on private hospitals to do more and for authorities to prioritise care for the elderly.

Vice-Premier Han Zheng, the state leader who oversees the city’s affairs, made the remarks during a meeting on Sunday with Hong Kong politicians attending the annual session of the country’s top advisory body, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), in Beijing.

Political analysts said the remarks reflected Beijing’s disappointment that despite guidance from top mainland experts, the Hong Kong government had yet to curb a raging fifth wave of infections and mobilise enough resources in the private sector to fight the pandemic.

But a representative of the city’s private hospitals said they had been cooperating with government requests and were trying to help.

Hong Kong on Sunday confirmed 31,008 new Covid-19 infections – the second day in a row case numbers have fallen – taking the city’s official tally to 471,617. However, Dr Albert Au Ka-wing of the Centre for Health Protection said it was too early to read anything into the decrease.

“We need to monitor for another one to two weeks at least to find out if we have reached the peak and cases start to fall, we can’t determine if we have reached the peak yet,” he warned.

But deaths hit a record, with the Hospital Authority reporting 153 new fatalities in the past 24 hours, involving patients aged between 31 and 105. Another 76 people, aged 24 to 105, died earlier but the cases were only reported on Sunday due to a backlog. The Centre for Health Protection also announced four additional deaths, of patients aged between 56 and 89, which did not go through the authority’s system.