CE Warns Fifth Covid Wave Hasn't Peaked Yet

Chief Executive Carrie Lam on Saturday warned that the fifth Covid wave may not have peaked yet, even though health experts have suggested otherwise.

Speaking at her daily pandemic press briefing, Lam said it would take a few days before a judgement on the city's pandemic situation, which has seen a tsunami-like outbreak, could be made.

"At this moment, we could not comfortably say that we have passed the peak…We'd rather take a very cautious stance, that we will closely monitor the coming days to see whether we are seeing a drop in the confirmed cases, especially under the self-declaration system of those who were tested positive by the rapid antigen test," she said.

But Lam pledged to do whatever it takes to steer the SAR out of the current wave of infections, heeding calls from a senior Beijing official who oversees Hong Kong affairs, Xia Baolong, on beefing up the territory's efforts in fighting the current Omicron outbreak.

"We are putting in every effort to fight this epidemic. We are not short of money, we will spend whatever money is required in order to get us out of this epidemic as soon as possible," she said.

Responding to Xia's calls to improve the distribution of resources, the city's leader said there would be a closed-loop system for cross-boundary drivers to transport goods from the mainland, as she again reassured that supplies and their prices have stabilised.

Separately, Lam defended the government decision to allow civil servants to return to work, even if they test positive again after recovering from Covid-19 – a new arrangement announced by the Civil Service Bureau on Friday.

She said the decision has gone through risk assessment, and these people have a low viral load, which means a smaller transmission risk.

The chief executive added that authorities arrived at the decision after considering manpower issues, as some 20,000 civil servants – roughly 13 percent of the government's manpower – have come down with Covid, with a number of them already recovered and back at work.