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

Public hospital doctors will assess patients regularly according to their symptoms and order tests as appropriate to give the best treatment.

Hospital Authority Chief Manager (Quality & Standards) Dr Lau Ka-hin made the statement during a press briefing today when he was asked about a case in which a 44-year-old patient at Yan Chai Hospital preliminarily tested positive for COVID-19 after initially testing negative.

“When patients are being cared for in the hospital, doctors will assess the patients according to the symptoms, according to the clinical conditions as well as the laboratory investigations.

“For this patient in Yan Chai Hospital, the first test of COVID-19 was negative. Although there was a negative result, the doctor was suspicious about the persisting symptoms in this patient, so the patient was put in the isolation ward once the doctor suspected the patient may be suffering from COVID-19 or other infectious diseases.

“So the doctor ordered another test in order to confirm whether the patient had COVID-19. This is a clinical judgement.”