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Coronavirus: Hong Kong leader John Lee dismisses calls for independent probe into government handling of pandemic
- Chief Executive John Lee says no recognised best or standard solution for handling Covid-19 as inquiry proposer says he’s not looking for scapegoats
- Lee also says government will soon scrap vaccination and rapid antigen testing requirements for arrivals
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Hong Kong’s leader on Tuesday dismissed calls for an independent investigation into the government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, saying there has never been a recognised best solution to the public health crisis.
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But government health adviser Professor Yuen Kwok-yung, who called for a far-reaching inquiry last week, said he was simply looking for improvements and lessons to be learned, rather than finding a scapegoat.
In rejecting the proposal from one of the city’s leading infectious disease experts, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu stressed the government already regularly evaluated its response to the pandemic.
“The epidemic situation has been changing rapidly, and local governments respond in real time according to the situation. There is no recognised best or standard solution,” he said before his weekly meeting with his top advisers.
“I agree that we must sum up experience to ensure that we can effectively respond to different threats, and that is what the government has been continuously doing – to sum up experience and optimised measures to ensure we have the ability to respond.”
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