[Commentary] According to the Health Protection Center of the Department of Health of the Hong Kong SAR Government, as of 4 pm on July 13, the number of confirmed cases of New Coronary Pneumonia in Hong Kong has surged for several consecutive days, with a total of 1521 confirmed cases. In the past 5 days, there were nearly 200 new cases of new pneumonia diagnosed in Hong Kong, 153 of which were local confirmed cases, accounting for 77% of the total number of confirmed cases. In response, Liang Zichao, chairman of the Hong Kong Medical Association Infectious Diseases Advisory Committee, said that the third wave of outbreaks in Hong Kong has already struck. The loopholes should be plugged as soon as possible and community mobilization should be done as soon as possible. Otherwise, the outbreak may run out of control.

  [Explanation] Liang Zichao said that in the past, the epidemic in Hong Kong has been relatively stable, but the rebound of the world epidemic has brought a lot of input pressure to Hong Kong, coupled with the relative relaxation of measures to limit social distance, and the public’s anti-epidemic fatigue. The loophole caused a third wave of outbreaks.

  [Same period] Chairman of the Hong Kong Medical Association Infectious Disease Advisory Committee

  As the world epidemic rebounded, air, shipping, passenger and freight traffic began to recover in the past month or two, which has greatly increased our own input pressure. Another reason is that all (restricted) social distance measures cannot last forever, because neither society's economy nor people's livelihood can support it. Even if it is a personal protective measure, wearing a mask or the like has the problem of anti-epidemic fatigue in hot weather. When such an anti-epidemic fatigue problem is connected with input pressure, I think it is the most important reason for this third wave of outbreaks.

  [Explanation] Liang Zichao believes that the third wave of the epidemic is more "serious" than before. The spread of cases of unknown origin in all regions of Hong Kong is unprecedented, which has brought new challenges to Hong Kong's anti-epidemic work.

  [Same period] Chairman of the Hong Kong Medical Association Infectious Disease Advisory Committee

  If the number of cases continues to rise, it means that our community communication is still continuing. We noticed this time that cases of unknown origin are spreading in all districts of Hong Kong. This is a phenomenon we have not seen before. This situation is more worrying. Moreover, the emergence of so many cases of unknown origin in the short term actually reflects that there are many sources of communication in the community. It can also be said that we may not necessarily find all hidden sources of communication, because many are still hidden.

  [Explanation] Liang Zichao compared the anti-epidemic work to "fire fighting". He believes that the key to "extinguishing fire" lies in "mobilization of the whole people." Only when all citizens raise their awareness of epidemic prevention and reduce the "fire point" will they be able to gain time for the government to fight against the epidemic and control it before a large-scale outbreak occurs.

  [Same period] Chairman of the Hong Kong Medical Association Infectious Disease Advisory Committee

  For all emergency matters, if you have one fire head and two fire heads, (the government) can control it. But if there are fireheads around, it can't be effectively dealt with at the same time by its own resilience. The third wave (outbreak) has been determined, but whether we can effectively control the third wave (outbreak), I feel that as long as we can mobilize the community and respond quickly, the sooner we can do our own personal hygiene In fact, we can still control the epidemic within a few weeks.

  [Commentary] On July 13, the government announced a series of measures to tighten social distances, including restaurants in Hong Kong are not allowed to dine in the "late six to five", and the upper limit of the polymerization limit has been tightened to 4 people again. Liang Zichao appealed to the public to, in addition to complying with government measures, try to minimize unnecessary social contacts, insist on wearing masks and paying attention to clean hands. In indoor high-risk places that are impenetrable and inconvenient to wear masks, close contact with strangers outside the family should be avoided as much as possible to reduce the risk of further outbreaks in the community.

  Reporter Chen Anyi Zhu Aili reports from Hong Kong

Editor in charge: [Wang Kai]