CGTN
China’s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Chief Executive Carrie Lam told a press conference on Sunday that the SAR government will continue to increase its support for people in quarantine. Hong Kong is currently grappling with its fifth wave of COVID-19 infections, dominated by the Omicron variant, as the city has now registered nearly 255,000 confirmed cases since the onset of the epidemic. Lam said the HKSAR government believes there could be some 300,000 patients and their contacts currently undergoing isolation or home quarantine. She said officials have stepped up delivery of anti-epidemic kits to those affected, adding that more hotlines have also been set up to address people’s concerns. “With so many people put under isolation or quarantine, the government has been strengthening its capability to support them. However, we’re still catching up,” Lam said. The HKSAR government will adjust the treatment measures in a timely manner based on each of its daily confirmed cases, and arrange treatment for the patients under the triage system according to their condition, Lam added.
Pre-existing extra care
measures for the elderly
The HKSAR government assumes primary responsibility in fighting COVID-19 and will strive to stabilize the epidemic situation especially in reducing severe cases and deaths, Xinhua reported on Saturday, citing senior officials from Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, since the fifth wave of the epidemic, people over 60 years old have accounted for more than 90 percent of the total COVID-19 deaths. “We attach great importance to patients with mild symptoms but still at risk, especially the elderly. Therefore, we have designed some methods to find these elderly people as early as possible and sent them to isolation facilities,” Sophia Chan, Secretary for Food and Health of the HKSAR government, told Xinhua in an interview. Under the triage system, community isolation facilities play a role for the elderly and other patients who need priority treatment.
