Sewage surveillance could be dropped as Covid weakens, says health expert

University of Hong Kong's microbiologist Ho Pak-leung said on Thursday that authorities could drop its regular sewage surveillance across the territory as the coronavirus has weakened to become a common cold.

Speaking on a radio program this morning, the health expert said three years into the Covid pandemic, the coronavirus is no longer lethal and is no different from the common cold.

Ho previously said when citizens were not immune or had minimum protection against Covid, it is essential for the government to disseminate information on the pandemic and to eliminate its spread.

However, he said with the coronavirus gradually weakening and over 90 percent of citizens having certain immunity to the virus, the government no longer have to disseminate pandemic info daily so as to reduce the psychological burden on citizens.

He also called on authorities to cancel the regular sewage surveillance, saying they were no longer useful.