(Fighting New Coronary Pneumonia) Interview with anti-epidemic expert Xu Shuchang: Hong Kong must tighten exemption arrangements to meet "customs clearance" requirements
China News Service, Hong Kong, November 14th, title: Interview with anti-epidemic expert Xu Shuchang: Hong Kong must tighten exemption arrangements to meet "customs clearance" requirements
China News Agency reporter Han Xingtong
There is no local confirmed case in Hong Kong after a lapse of more than one month. Unexpectedly, 4 imported cases had contacted the community recently, including 2 crew members who were exempted from quarantine, although Xu Shuchang, an expert consultant to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government and Chair Professor of Respiratory System at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, believes There is little chance of causing community outbreaks, but he also emphasized that the top priority is to tighten the exemption arrangements to meet the "customs clearance" requirements.
At the end of September, a matchmaking meeting on epidemic prevention and control between the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong was held in Shenzhen. The two places had detailed exchanges and exchanged views on the gradual and orderly restoration of "customs clearance" exemption from quarantine.
During an exclusive interview with a reporter from China News Agency, Xu Shuchang, who attended the meeting, revealed that the meeting determined that the principle of "customs clearance" is "no additional risks to the prevention and control of the mainland epidemic". This standard requires Hong Kong to continue to "zero out" local cases, and at the same time The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government also needs to introduce a "clearance code" with tracking functions.
As far as Xu Shuchang knows, the Bureau of Innovation and Technology of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government has begun to develop a "pass code". The system will record citizens' vaccination records for the new crown, nucleic acid test results, and whether they have been exposed to places where the epidemic occurred in the past two or three weeks.
"If everything is normal, the system will turn to green code and pass the customs smoothly."
"Taking the'customs clearance' between Macau and the Mainland as a reference, it will take 4 to 5 months to discuss the actual'customs clearance' from the first discussion. Give you time to improve measures to be closer to the requirements of the Mainland. After that, the National Health Commission will conduct a field visit. Investigation." Xu Shuchang said.
In the past month, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government has adjusted the epidemic prevention "loopholes" proposed by the above-mentioned meeting, including tightening the discharge conditions for confirmed patients and arranging for patients to continue to be isolated in designated locations for 14 days after discharge, encrypting high-risk and high-exposure groups of viruses Frequency of testing, tightening of quarantine exemption arrangements, etc.
"Hong Kong's own measures to prevent importation are already quite stringent, and many measures are still improving." After the SAR government cancelled the quarantine exemption arrangements for most exempted persons after arriving in Hong Kong, the flight crew remained in the exempted category.
Of the 5 imported cases confirmed on November 10, 4 had contact with the community, including 2 local crew members, and the other 2 were "fuyang" after completing the 21-day hotel quarantine period.
Regarding this situation, Xu Shuchang believes that the "Fuyang" case has a low viral load and the chance of causing an outbreak is very low.
It is worth paying attention to the two crew members with high viral load.
In fact, similar situations have occurred in the past. For example, a staff member working at the Hong Kong International Airport Super Terminal 1 and a staff member in charge of handling work on the apron was diagnosed. They both had contact with the community, but none of them caused an outbreak. Xu Shuchang He attributed the reason to the citizens' high awareness of epidemic prevention, maintaining good habits such as wearing masks and washing hands frequently. Therefore, he believes that the two cases may not cause a major outbreak, so don't worry too much.
"But not every time I am so lucky." Xu Shuchang emphasized that the emergence of the above situation proves that it is imminent to tighten the exemption arrangements again. He suggested that the crew be arranged to undergo a 7-day hotel quarantine to replace the current self-observation of freedom of movement. They have all been vaccinated. If they are infected, the condition is very mild or even asymptomatic, but they still carry the virus and can spread in the community." He pointed out that the incubation period of Delta virus is short, about 4 and a half days, and the 7-day quarantine period should be able to stop it. spread.
In the past six months, the epidemic in Hong Kong has been stable, but outbreaks continue to occur in many countries and regions around the world.
Under this circumstance, Xu Shuchang believes that it is imperative to increase the coverage rate of the new crown vaccine and promote the third dose of vaccine.
He admitted that only one-third of patients with immune system problems are vaccinated against the new crown vaccine, and the elderly vaccination rate is also hovering at a low level.
The antibodies produced by vaccination will decrease over time, and it is naturally easy to cause outbreaks again. "Hong Kong must improve in these two areas." (End)