Fourth wave of outbreak might arrive early, health chief warns

Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee said today that the feared fourth wave of the pandemic might arrive early.

In a blog post, Chan said as there are still “invisible spreaders” within the Hong Kong community, and the new virus strain will be more contagious, the pandemic might worsen rapidly in a very short period of time, which might start the fourth wave of the pandemic early.

She therefore calls on citizens that suspect themselves to have a higher risk of contraction or show symptoms to undergo virus testing or seek medical consultation.

Meanwhile, Chan also said the government has set up temporary Covid-19 testing centres in four districts, including Wan Chai and Kwai Ching, last week after clusters grew in those districts, and a total of 15,500 samples had already been collected.

“The testing ability in Hong Kong has increased massively. The government will proactively study the possibility to set up temporary virus testing centres in districts with more confirmed cases, which will allow us to identify Covid-19 carriers in time to cut off the infection chain,” she said.