'Help Of Disciplined Services Needed In Covid Fight'

A prominent microbiologist added his voice on Monday to calls for the government to enlist the help of disciplined services staff to help track down close contacts of Covid-19 patients, and make sure people exposed to the virus are tested within 24 hours.

University of Hong Kong expert Ho Pak-leung was speaking after 19 patients and staff at United Christian Hospital tested positive for Covid-19, all linked to an 84-year-old patient who had stayed at the intensive and palliative care wards.

He said it’s easy to see how this apparent super-spreading event happened, given that Kwun Tong has seen the most Covid-19 cases out of any district during this fourth wave of infections.

But Ho noted that it’s not feasible for hospitals to take enough precautions to completely keep the virus from getting into non-Covid wards, and the best way to prevent such mass outbreaks is to control community-level outbreaks as quickly as possible.

But the microbiologist told a radio programme that the authorities are taking too long to test people who have likely already been exposed to the virus – such as residents of buildings where multiple infections have been confirmed.

He said ideally, all people deemed to be at high risk of having the virus should be tested within 24 hours, and if there aren't enough medical personnel to ensure this happens, the authorities should consider enlisting the help of disciplined services official to track down and test all of them as quickly as possible.

The suggestion was previously made by Ho’s colleague, Yuen Kwok-yung.

“If you look at Macau and the mainland, they basically mobilised everyone,” Ho said, “take Shenzhen as an example, when there was an outbreak, the city deployed 610,000 people to the front line for sample collection and tracing work.”

The expert also warned of a possible spike in Covid-19 cases as a result of Christmas gatherings in private homes, where people would not have kept their masks on.

“I’m worried that there could be a V-shaped rebound in the next couple of weeks,” he said, noting that many people have recently gotten infected after attending family gatherings.