Covid Cases Expect To Peak In September: David Hui

A government adviser on the pandemic, David Hui, said on Saturday he expects Covid cases to peak later this month, and hopefully Hong Kong will be in a better position to ease or even scrap quarantine for incoming travellers in November.

Speaking to reporters after appearing on a radio programme, the Chinese University professor said the real time virus reproductive number still stands at around 1.3, so cases are still expected to rise for the time being.

He explained the quarantine arrangement can't be relaxed now because the public hospitals are under "tremendous" pressure because of the rising caseload, and the vaccination rate among the elderly and children is still not desirable.

"We have a large number of patients requiring admission. Although they mainly have mild symptoms, they also have exacerbation of their underlying medical illness - which require hospital admission," Hui said.

"But hopefully when the BA.5 wave peaks in around September, then the cases will come down. At the same time, if we can continue to lift the vaccination rate to generate better protection, then hopefully by November we will be in a much better position."

Currently, people coming to Hong Kong are required to spend three nights in hotel quarantine and undergo medical surveillance for four more days.

The expert added there was no need to tighten social distancing measures but called on people to avoid large gatherings in the upcoming Mid-Autumn festival.

Meanwhile, the chief executive of the Hospital Authority Tony Ko said there were no plans to designate certain hospitals as Covid-only facilities unless case numbers increased significantly.

He also said there was no need to ask the mainland to send medical teams for assistance.

Ko told an RTHK programme that public hospitals were already caring for about 2,700 people, and an additional three thousand beds had been reserved for Covid patients. Still, he said some non-emergency services have already been affected.

He also revealed that only around 40 percent of the elderly people who came down with Covid were willing to take oral antiviral drugs.

The public hospital chief again urged people to get inoculated, noting that almost half of the Covid patients admitted haven't received three doses of vaccine, and about 20 percent haven't been jabbed at all.