Covid-19: Suspension of Hong Kong mass testing plan does not mean city can ‘lie flat’, top Chinese expert warns, even as tough rules begin to ease
- Dr Liang Wannian says putting mass testing on hold is a scientifically based decision made in accordance with the city’s latest pandemic situation
- Schools are set to reopen from next month but a 90 per cent vaccination rate for pupils will be required to resume full-day, face-to-face classes, sources say
Schools are set to reopen from next month as part of a phased relaxation of social-distancing measures, but the Post has learned that a 90 per cent vaccination rate for students will be required for any institution to resume full-day, face-to-face classes.
Hong Kong confirmed 14,152 new Covid-19 infections on Tuesday, as Dr Liang Wannian, head of the National Health Commission’s Covid Response Expert Team, said the suspension of the universal testing plan announced by Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor a day earlier did not mean the city was “lying flat” – a reference to the controversial movement about doing nothing that is troubling Chinese society.
Liang, who recently visited Hong Kong to advise local authorities on the Covid-19 crisis, told a press briefing in Beijing on Tuesday that he believed putting the scheme on hold was a scientifically based decision made in accordance with the city’s latest pandemic situation.
Liang said the strategy of “three reductions” in minimising infections, severe cases and deaths, “three focuses” in identifying key groups, organisations and districts, and “one priority” in treating the elderly had yielded positive results.
“Therefore it cannot be said that epidemic control is relaxed without doing universal testing,” he said. “Hong Kong is actually expanding its testing capacity … and allowing citizens to use rapid antigen tests at home so infections can be detected earlier and managed. I think the combination of these measures is of great significance to Hong Kong’s epidemic prevention and control.”
On Monday Hong Kong’s leader announced that the mass testing plan would be put on hold as it would be “chaotic” to implement it at this stage, in part because many unidentified Covid-19 patients who had already recovered over the last three months could still test positive, despite having a low viral load and transmission risk.
