HK can't live with Covid as the old may die

Hong Kong cannot adopt a live-with-the-virus strategy because the highly infectious Omicron variant is still harmful to the elderly and chronically ill, even though it is generally milder than past variants, experts said.

Jasper Chan Fuk-woo from the University of Hong Kong's department of microbiology said the ratio of high-risk groups developing complications and dying from Omicron is still higher than that of the common cold.

This came after he and other HKU researchers led by Yuen Kwok-yung said on Sunday findings showed Omicron is less effective in self-replicating and causing disease than other variants.

Chan said yesterday some overseas experts have suggested that given Omicron is milder, countries can adopt a live-with-the-virus approach as the variant is too infectious to contain.

"But that strategy comes with a condition [that] a number of chronically-ill and elderly people will still be infected, causing them to develop serious sickness or even die Unless the society accepts this condition," he said.

"We also need to evaluate whether our medical system can cater to more people with the infection, as well as border reopening with the mainland and overseas. At this point we should still try to contain the virus to protect public health and medical system."

Respiratory specialist Leung Chi-chiu said countries trying to live with the virus have seen hundreds of thousands of deaths and economic loss in exchange for herd immunity from natural infections. "The vaccines we have now cannot effectively stop Omicron from spreading, so don't fantasize about living with the virus," he said. "Look at Australia, which saw 100,000 Omicron cases a day [at its peak]."

He urged people to stay home in the coming week, adding they should reduce going out and cut contact with other people by 30 percent to lower Omicron's transmissibility by 90 percent.

Another HKU expert Ivan Hung Fan-ngai believed outbreaks in the northern hemisphere will drop significantly in April, as many countries are seeing many new cases daily while people are taking third jabs for extra protection.

"If there are no new variants emerging after spring, the pandemic may die down for several months but it will return in winter, like seasonal influenza," he said.

"I believe in the future, all countries will be facing the threats of influenza and Covid every winter, and people will have to get jabs for both infections every year."

Government adviser David Hui Shu-cheong from Chinese University acknowledged people's anti-epidemic fatigue and unhappiness with the government and its experts after two years of Covid.

Hui said people have misunderstood him and fellow experts Yuen and HKU dean of medicine Gabriel Leung.

Lawmakers Priscilla Leung Mei-fun, Doreen Kong Yuk-foon and Nelson Lam Chi-yuen on Sunday sent a letter to Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor urging authorities to set up an anti-epidemic panel with the mainland.