Virus Situation Getting Out Of Control, Say Experts

Top health experts warned on Monday that the coronavirus situation has already gone "a bit out of control" in Hong Kong, but they differed on what steps should be taken to lessen the load on hospitals.

Their warnings came as the number of cases in the city zoomed to 641 by Sunday, from just over 350 last Monday.

Microbiologist Yuen Kwok-yung said he believes the public have recently started to become lax about personal hygiene, which has caused the situation to get out of control.

The University of Hong Kong professor said the most important thing to do now is to stop the spread of Covid-19 in the community. However, as the number of tests done on suspected patients with mild symptoms is low, the threat of community clusters looms large, he warned.

Yuen said authorities should consider sending some patients with mild symptoms to regular wards that are being turned into isolation units or move them to quarantine centres.

He said some may even be allowed to recover at their homes, as hospitals have to make room for new patients.

But the head of Hong Kong University's Centre for Infection, Ho Pak-leung, was against sending patients home, saying such a step would spread infections in apartment buildings.

Ho said sending patients home before they have recovered fully would be very dangerous.

He said moving patients in a stable situation out of hospitals could be a way to free up space, but they should be sent to quarantine centres.

This will make sure that these people who are still infected don’t go anywhere else in the city, he said.

Ho also urged authorities to act tough with their new social distancing measures, and with "zero tolerance", saying Hong Kong is out of time and officials cannot only give warnings to offenders.

He said it's possible that the city could soon record more than 100 cases a day.