Act Now To Prevent Post-new Year Covid Spike: Expert

An infectious diseases expert said on Thursday that authorities need to conduct testing and tracing for coronavirus much quicker – warning that a failure to bring Covid-19 numbers sharply down in the next two weeks would lead to another rise in infections after the Lunar New Year.

University of Hong Kong professor Ho Pak-leung said quick contact tracing of people linked to a coronavirus outbreak at a congee shop in Hung Hom was of paramount importance.

Ho said the outbreak there – which has seen six workers at the shop come down with Covid-19 while a seventh has tested preliminary positive – could lead to another large-scale outbreak.

"The transmission didn't happen in the past two days, but a week ago perhaps... a lot of customers could've been infected already," Ho said.

"It's a high-risk cluster that could lead to another community outbreak,” he warned. “If the authorities don't do their work quickly, they will only be chasing after the virus forever.”

“Locking down a neighbourhood by then is not a preventive strategy, it's only used to repair the damage already done,” he said.

Ho said the situation in the city is “very worrying”, and recent outbreaks show the virus is still very active in the community.

Ho said it was inevitable that more people would go out and have family gatherings during Chinese New Year – and this could trigger a further rise in cases.

Meanwhile, the Environment Secretary, Wong Kam-sing, said the government had boosted its capacity to collect and test sewage samples to detect the presence of coronavirus.

He said officials are collecting samples from more than 20 locations in four districts each day.

He described the sewage test as a ”radar", but admitted that the results could be affected by various factors, such as whether sewage pipes are properly connected.

He said even if the sewage samples test negative for the virus, it can still be present in the residential buildings.