Lawmakers Launch Own Covid Support Hotline

A group of lawmakers said on Thursday that they are launching their own support hotline for Covid-19 patients, after they received complaints from citizens that they were unable to get through on a hotline provided by the government.

Medical sector lawmaker David Lam and several other DAB legislators said patients can now send their inquiries to 9403-1164 via Whatsapp, and they will be forwarded to one of 20 private doctors participating in the scheme.

They said the doctors will call the patients back, and they expect the hotline to be able to serve around 200 people per day.

The scheme will first open to Sha Tin residents, and might expand to other districts if more doctors join, the lawmakers said.

Lam said the doctors will give situation-specific information or advice.

“For instance, say I’m infected, and then my two kids are not yet infected, so how often should they undergo test. And in my particular situation, such as I have two rooms in my house, and then we have only one toilet, so what can we do to reduce the possibility of transmitting the disease,” he said.

“If you find those answers online, it might be a little bit difficult for a layperson to decide which answer is suitable for you under your specific situation. So these are the things we can do and try to answer,” Lam added.

The lawmakers said the participating doctors, who have different specialties, will try to get back to patients on the same day, but they might have to call back later if there are too many inquiries.

“Resources are limited and demand can be very high, so we just try our best,” Lam said.