No Need For Curfew Yet, Says Chuang Shuk-kwan

Health authorities on Sunday played down the need for Hong Kong to consider draconian measures like a partial lockdown as suggested by a expert advising the government on its pandemic response.

Respiratory disease expert David Hui had earlier on Sunday said that packed malls and parks seen over the weekend suggest the people weren’t taking enough precautions to cut the chains of transmissions during this fourth wave of Covid-19 infections.

He said the government may have to consider shutting down more businesses and even imposing a curfew forcing people to stay at home for several hours a day, to get the outbreak under control.

But the Centre for Health Protection's Chuang Shuk-kwan appealed for patience, saying existing government measures such as gathering restrictions and a mandatory shutdown of bars, gyms and some entertainment facilities should be given more time to show their effect.

“We have done quite well in the past,” Chuang said. “Our mask-wearing rate is very high and we have curtailed our gatherings as much as possible so maybe we have to be patient for a longer period of time.”

Chuang also urged the public to avoid large family gatherings as much as possible, especially as the winter solstice – an event on Monday traditionally celebrated with family dinners – and the Christmas holidays approach.

"Of course as the government, we can do as much as possible, but the general public have to also consider that any gathering between people, there's a risk of transmission. The disease is transmissible before you develop symptoms," Chuang warned.

She noted many recent cases came down with Covid-19 after attending family gatherings, and added that it's particularly risky for the chronically ill and the elderly.

Meanwhile, authorities reported 74 new Covid-19 cases on Sunday. Seventy were locally-transmitted, and 25 didn't have a known source of infection. Another 50 people have tested preliminary positive.

Among the new cases were two people who work at a diagnostic imaging clinic in Mong Kok.

They're believed to have been exposed to the virus when a male patient who subsequently tested positive for Covid took a pill in their presence at Hong Kong Advanced Imaging on December 7.

One of them stopped going to work the next day, while the other who came down with Covid kept working until Thursday last week. Everyone who took care of the infected patient will be sent into quarantine.

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