HK govt not underprepared for city’s fifth wave, former health chief says

Hong Kong’s former health chief rejected claims that the Carrie Lam administration she previously served in was underprepared ahead of the city’s fifth Covid wave, however, she admitted that their plans could not keep up with the changes in the epidemic situation.

In a newspaper interview, former Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee said authorities already have plans to handle a fifth Covid wave that emerged in late December 2021, which saw the city’s healthcare system stretched to its limits.

Chan said authorities had prepared for close contacts of Covid to undergo home quarantine when the daily caseload reached a certain level. Still, their plans had failed to keep up with the changes in the epidemic situation, she noted.

The former health chief also admitted that a policy requiring all Covid patients to be hospitalized for 14 days regardless of their symptoms had led to the low turnover rates of hospital beds, with patients required to wait outside of public hospitals’ Accident & Emergency Departments.

Separately, she said authorities could have adopted a more aggressive approach in vaccinating residents in care homes, mandating the jabs once the residents were cleared by doctors - without the need for their family members’ consent.

When asked if the Carrie Lam administration should apologize to citizens and family members of those who died of Covid, Chan said it is time for people to move on.

Meanwhile, she added that she is not in a position to comment if the current administration should launch an independent inquiry into the government’s handling of the city’s fifth Covid wave, but authorities should certainly make reviews of it.