(Fighting New Coronary Pneumonia) Lin Zhengcai: After taking the existing measures, Hong Kong has a chance to clear the epidemic
China News Service, Hong Kong, December 22 (Reporter Zeng Ping) The new crown pneumonia epidemic in Hong Kong continues to be severe. In order to prevent the introduction of the British variant virus into Hong Kong as much as possible, the SAR government banned all passenger flights from the United Kingdom from entering Hong Kong at 0:00 on the 22nd.
Lin Zhengcai, a non-official member of the Executive Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region who is a doctor, said in an interview with a reporter from China News Agency on the trend of the fourth wave of the epidemic in Hong Kong that if the existing measures including the above measures are taken, the epidemic in Hong Kong has a chance to be cleared.
According to the analysis by the research team of the University of Hong Kong, the infectivity of the British variant virus has increased by 75% compared to before.
Lin Zhengcai said that the current virus transmission rate in Hong Kong has dropped to about 0.8, that is, on average, each confirmed person will transmit the virus to less than one person. If the British variant virus is circulating in Hong Kong, the virus transmission rate will rise to about 1.5, which may cause an epidemic. Rebound again.
Under this circumstance, the SAR government for the first time banned people including Hong Kong residents from arriving in Hong Kong from the UK is no suitable measure.
Asked whether the SAR government will have new measures to contain the epidemic, Lin Zhengcai said that if every aspect of the existing measures is stepped up, the epidemic in Hong Kong has a chance to be cleared.
He mentioned several things that Hong Kong needs to do to control this wave of epidemics: prevent the British variant virus from being introduced into the community; increase efforts to track close contacts; and all citizens of Hong Kong should cooperate in the prevention and fight against the epidemic.
He said that people may not be able to reunite with relatives and friends on Christmas and New Year's Day, but everyone has expectations for the Lunar New Year.
If you do the above points, the situation will be more ideal.
However, Lin Zhengcai also admitted that there has been a "bottleneck" in Hong Kong's anti-epidemic work, that is, recent close contacts have to wait more than a day to be admitted to the quarantine center.
"This is not ideal." He pointed out that the fourth wave of the epidemic in Hong Kong remained at the peak of single-day high double-digit confirmed cases, because the confirmed cases were scattered across all districts in Hong Kong, and the outbreak of singing and dancing groups quickly spread the virus to all walks of life, A large number of cases of unknown origin appeared in districts and housing estates.
The singing and dancing group is the largest infected group since the outbreak in Hong Kong. At least 720 people have been infected.
Lin Zhengcai said that due to factors such as unregistered dance venues and outside surveillance radars, all close contacts of the singing and dancing groups could not be traced. Many cases were not discovered until the second and third generations, making it impossible to trace the route of transmission. Cases of unknown origin have made Hong Kong's containment strategy less successful than in the second and third waves.
In addition to the emergence of large singing and dancing groups and the high proportion of cases of unknown origin, Lin Zhengcai believes that another characteristic of the fourth wave of the epidemic in Hong Kong is that many residential buildings have infected groups, but fortunately they have not become large groups. The number of confirmed patients in the group is around ten.
He attributed the lack of large-scale outbreaks in residential buildings to the SAR government's extensive inspections in violent buildings, including the use of mobile sampling vehicles in the district.
In addition, the SAR government’s regulations on mandatory testing have also greatly helped cope with this wave of epidemics, requiring some non-close contacts to be tested.
Lin Zhengcai said that from a global perspective, Hong Kong is not doing poorly in fighting the epidemic, but it is not as good as the Mainland and Macau.
He said that the SAR government must step up its anti-epidemic work.
Hong Kong people very much hope that the economy can recover as soon as possible, especially if customs clearance with the Mainland as soon as possible will help Hong Kong's economy and people's livelihood.
(Finish)