Current Covid Outbreak Yet To Peak, Says David Hui

Government pandemic adviser David Hui on Saturday said the current Covid-19 outbreak has yet to peak, but added that there would only likely be a return to social distancing in the event of a high-risk variant emerging.

The Chinese University professor, who told a radio programme that he caught Covid a month ago, said coronavirus infections are on the rise, while flu cases had gone down after peaking at the end of last month.

Speaking to reporters afterwards, Hui said the World Health Organisation had already declared that it no longer considered Covid to be a global health emergency, and that the virus had become endemic.

"In case there is emergence of new variants with high risks of severe disease and fatality rate, then the government may reintroduce some social distancing measures," Hui told reporters.

"At the moment, all the variants, although they are very transmissible, the severe cases and fatality rate have not increased. So I think we should just treat it like any endemic respiratory virus."

Hui also said he saw no reason for the government to offer the Omicron-targeting bivalent booster shot from Moderna free of charge, after it had been granted authorisation for use in the SAR.

"The government has already purchased enough Sinovac and BioNTech for the general population. So the extra brands of Covid vaccines are only for mix-and-match purposes. This is actually available in the private market," he said.