LCQ2: Guarding against onslaught of sixth wave of epidemic
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Question:
During the period when the fifth wave of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 epidemic raged across Hong Kong, the number of confirmed and death cases surged abruptly. Some members of the public have relayed that the various measures of the Government to cope with the epidemic lagged far behind the prevailing circumstances, and that as quite a number of countries have even chosen to co-exist with the virus, Hong Kong has to make preparations for guarding against the onslaught of the sixth wave of the epidemic. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) as some members of the tourism, aviation and transport industries have suggested that the medical standard to be adopted by the Government for conducting virus tests at immigration control points should align with that adopted by the country, and that overseas countries should be notified that the SAR Government will only accept PCR nucleic acid test reports issued in accordance with such standard, whether the Government will consider the suggestion and strictly perform gate-keeping to reduce the number of imported cases; and
(2) whether it will formulate various plans and actions to upgrade and enhance the existing epidemic prevention system, thereby ensuring that sufficient measures are in place to guard against the onslaught of the sixth wave of the epidemic; if so, of the details and timetable; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
Adhering to the pursuit of dynamic "zero infection", the Government continues to implement the anti-epidemic strategy of "preventing the importation of cases and the resurgence of domestic infections", and focuses on "three reductions, three focuses and one priority", which means focusing on reducing deaths, severe cases and infections, highlighting key groups of people, organisations and premises, and according priority to the elderly. We aim to build a stronger city-wide protection barrier against the virus, thereby allowing our society to make steady strides along the path to normalcy.
On monitoring the epidemic situation, the Government has been keeping a close watch through monitoring various indicators, including the number of reported positive cases, the viral loads in sewage surveillance, the percentage of positive cases in nucleic acid tests conducted at the community level, and the percentage of positive cases found in restriction-testing declaration operations. Indicators such as hospitalisation rate, severe case rate and fatality rate of positive cases are also being monitored. In the past week, we saw some changes in the epidemic situation in Hong Kong. With the increase in cases, some indicators for monitoring the epidemic situation also inevitably showed signs of increase. We will continue to closely monitor the overall situation and enhance the measures in a timely manner.
The Government has relaunched social and economic activities on various fronts in an orderly manner along the path to normalcy as earlier announced on March 21. The Government is making the best effort to strike a balance in the three-way tug of war by taking into consideration the economic impact and social acceptance, while not undermining our anti-epidemic efforts.
My reply to the various parts of the question raised by the Hon Rock Chen is as follows:
(1) The Government has been imposing stringent inbound control measures on persons arriving at Hong Kong from overseas places. In order to be allowed to board for Hong Kong, persons arriving at Hong Kong who have stayed in overseas places generally must (1) be fully vaccinated and hold a recognised vaccination record; (2) hold a negative result proof of a polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based nucleic acid test for COVID-19 conducted within 48 hours before the scheduled time of departure of the aircraft; and (3) hold a confirmation of room reservation at a designated quarantine hotel (DQH) for the seven or 14 nights from the day of arrival at Hong Kong.
There are stringent requirements that documentary proof of negative results of the pre-departure nucleic acid tests has to be a test report issued by a laboratory or healthcare institution. Also, the Government has specified that the relevant tests must be PCR nucleic acid tests, and test results from other testing technologies will not comply with the boarding requirements.
To rigorously guard against the importation of cases from overseas places into the community, all inbound persons are subject to "test-and-hold" at the airport upon arrival, followed by compulsory quarantine in DQHs. Relevant inbound persons are subject to daily rapid antigen tests (RATs), as well as PCR-based nucleic acid test on the fifth day of arrival at Hong Kong. If the results of the PCR test and RATs conducted on the fifth to seventh days are all negative, they can be discharged from compulsory quarantine earlier. Including the pre-departure test, inbound persons would have been tested negative for 10 consecutive times by the time they are discharged from compulsory quarantine earlier. Even so, the relevant persons are still subject to self-monitoring for seven days upon early discharge from compulsory quarantine, and compulsory PCR-based nucleic acid tests on the ninth and 12th days of arrival at Hong Kong. Since April, the vast majority of imported cases have been detected during "test-and-hold" or compulsory quarantine in DQHs.
Since March, outbound travellers to the Mainland or Macao have been subject to an additional free rapid PCR-based nucleic acid test prior to departure from Hong Kong at the airport or land boundary control points. Only those who receive a negative result can continue with their journeys. To further complement the Mainland's testing arrangements, the relevant special nucleic acid tests switched to using nasopharyngeal swabs for specimen collection from April 13.
All contractors of testing services provided by the Government passed quality assessment programmes and possess relevant medical laboratory accreditation. Contractors are also required to pass the Continuous Quality Assessment Programme conducted by the Centre for Health Protection (CHP). The relevant arrangement helps ensure contractors' limit of detection and sensitivity fully meet Mainland's requirements. Generally speaking, inconsistency in testing results (e.g. between pre-departure tests conducted in Hong Kong, and tests conducted when and after entering the Mainland) may be attributed to factors such as the incubation period of the virus, and unrelated to the professional standard and accuracy of testing in Hong Kong.
(2) The Government will stringently adhere to the anti-epidemic strategy of "preventing the importation of cases and controlling the spread of the virus in the community". We will continue to formulate policies and improve the existing anti-epidemic system for making preparatory measures, and will closely monitor the situation in respect of imported cases involving mutant virus strains, in order to prepare for an outbreak or the arrival of the next wave.
The experience from the fifth wave of the epidemic shows that nucleic acid tests complemented by RATs played a key role in containing the epidemic. Currently, around 60 000 nucleic acid tests and around 600 000 RATs are conducted each day in Hong Kong, including compulsory tests and RATs conducted by different groups of people, in order to ensure that positive cases can be found in a short period of time and transmission chains can be cut early when there are sporadic outbreaks.
Since the fifth wave of the epidemic, the Government attaches utmost importance to the anti-epidemic works targeting elderly, and has set up an inter-departmental task force led by the Labour and Welfare Bureau to examine the residential care homes' capabilities and discuss improvement measures. In addition, the Government conducted nucleic acid testing by phases in May for all residents of residential care homes for the elderly (RCHEs)/nursing homes across the city, and all staff members of RCHEs/nursing homes were also required to undergo daily RATs or regular nucleic acid tests, with an aim to identifying possible silent transmission.
Furthermore, through contact tracing, recent clusters relevant to catering business and four clusters relevant to bars and clubs were successfully identified by the CHP in order to curb the transmission chain in the community as soon as possible and to reduce the chance of virus spreading.
For social distancing measures, the Government has implemented the first and second stages of relaxation arrangements. Although the relaxation of relevant measures at the current stage will inevitably increase the transmission risk and the number of confirmed cases, and may lead to the emergence of more clusters of infections, it is an important step for society, the economy and people's livelihood to return to normalcy. We will continue to closely monitor the development of the epidemic situation and adjust the social distancing measures in a timely manner.
The Hospital Authority has also increased its treatment capacity and implemented a range of measures and formulated contingency plans with reference to the experience of the fifth wave. Under the multi-tiered triage arrangements, we will arrange for persons in need to be admitted into community isolation facilities so as to cut transmission chains as soon as possible. There are currently around 16 800 isolation units in Hong Kong, significantly enhancing its anti-epidemic ability. We also encourage members of the public to receive third dose of COVID-19 vaccine as soon as possible for building a protective barrier in the community.
Thank you, President.
Ends/Wednesday, June 8, 2022
Issued at HKT 15:45
Issued at HKT 15:45
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