North Point Ambush Lockdown Was Useless: Expert

A medical expert said on Friday that the government was too slow to lock down a residential building in North Point, rendering the move useless in stopping a Covid outbreak from spreading.

Health authorities found no new infections despite testing hundreds of people from Tung Fat Building on Thursday night.

More than a dozen residents there had earlier come down with Covid and several dozen were put in quarantine centres.

Specialist in respiratory medicine, Dr Leung Chi-chiu, told an RTHK programme that the fact that no one answered the door at 190 of the 660 households in the building shows many people probably moved out when coronavirus cases first emerged there.

"If you really want to target people who are relatively mobile, intervention is needed as soon as there's any warning sign," he said.

"There's no problem in imposing lockdowns. The problem is the measure is useless if it comes too late."

Leung also said that the introduction of strict coronavirus testing in parts of Kowloon will not help officials catch up with the spread of the virus.

Only six of Thursday's 39 new coronavirus cases were reported from areas covered by the tougher rules, and more than half of the infections were untraceable.

Leung said officials should study every single infection, identify any high-risk factors, and impose mandatory testing quickly when needed.

"The virus moves quickly. Relying on the specific areas cannot tackle the rapidly spreading outbreak. To control the outbreak, we must run faster than the virus," he said.