(To watch the full press briefing with sign language interpretation, click here.)

The Hospital Authority today said it is asking local scientists if the N95 respirator masks could be decontaminated and reused to combat the shortage of medical masks amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The authority’s Chief Manager (Quality & Standards) Dr Lau Ka-hin explained during a press briefing that the authority is searching for alternative strategies that include using a different mask or asking experts to study if sterilising the scarce masks is a safe option.

"There is a very tight supply of N95 respirators (throughout) the whole world. We are facing a shortage of supply from other overseas countries because some countries have actually banned the export of N95 respirators.

"In the Hospital Authority, we are looking for any alternatives for the N95 respirators which can fulfil the international standards and give fairly good protection to our staff. We are contacting different factories, locally as well as overseas, to see whether there are other types of respirators which can provide the same standards as N95 respirators.

"For the new technology of sterilisation of N95 respirators, this is a fairly new guideline in some countries, but in Hong Kong we are still looking for any review of this new technology by our experts in infection control."

Dr Lau emphasised that hospital workers will continue using the N95 masks until infection control experts complete their study.

"We are not asking our staff to reuse the N95 respirators (in the meantime). We are waiting for the experts to review this technology before we go forward."