'My Mum Died Alone Waiting To Be Quarantined'

The daughter of a woman who died alone at home while waiting to be put into quarantine has demanded a full government probe on what happened.

The woman, surnamed Chiu, said she tested positive for Covid-19 earlier this month, and was sent to a treatment facility at the AsiaWorld Expo for isolation on December 9.

Her mother was deemed as one of her close contacts, and was also supposed to be sent to quarantine as a precaution. However, this didn’t happen immediately.

She was ordered to remain at home while arrangements were made.

But Chiu said she lost contact with her mother on the third day, and she was found dead in her Tai Wai flat a day later, on December 12.

She was later found to have been carrying the coronavirus.

Chiu says she believes officials acted negligently, and she had informed them that her mother suffered from diabetes and hypertension.

“I feel the government is largely responsible for this incident,” she told reporters by phone at a press conference.

“I had told them they need to take good care of her, because she's in her sixties and was chronically ill. But they left her to wait at home indefinitely, and didn't test her for Covid. My mum wanted to get tested, but they didn't let her leave, and forced her to stay at home where she couldn't get tested.”

The Department of Health has conceded that there has been delays in sending hundreds of people into quarantine as the number of Covid-19 cases spike.

Health minister Sophia Chan said on Saturday that health officials should speak out if they are unable to clear the backlog.

But former Democratic Party lawmaker, Lam Cheuk-ting – who’s helping Chiu – said Chan’s comment was “absurd”, and that the delays demonstrates the utter incompetence of the government.

“It is her duty to safeguard the public health of Hong Kong. The minister should have monitored the virus situation day by day, she should have collected all the updated figures,” Lam said.

“And I don’t think she should shift her blame to frontline officers.”

Lam says he fears there could be other similar deaths in future due to the widespread delays in sending people to quarantine, adding that the mismanagement of the problem has resulted in a “man-made disaster”.

Responding to the death at a regular press conference, the Centre for Health Protection's Chuang Shuk-kwan said the authorities have reviewed the quarantine workflow to try to prevent a repeat of the incident.

She stressed that officials will strive to send people in to quarantine within a 24-hour period.

Dr Chuang also said records show that the deceased was marked as a chronically ill patient with diabetes and hypertension, and the case should now be sent to the coroner's court.

She added that the CHP feels very sad about the patient's passing.

An RTHK reporter also caught up with Health Secretary Sophia Chan after she inspected a testing centre in Wong Tai Sin.

Asked whether she would apologise for the death or if there had been any maladministration on the part of the government, Chan said "The Department of Health has already done a lot of work", but did not answer any further questions.

______________________________

Last updated: 2020-12-20 HKT 17:48

______________________________