Chief Executive Carrie Lam

Over the past month, the epidemic situation in Hong Kong has remained stable. Although one local case involving an airport worker was reported on October 8, which broke the city’s streak of over 50 days of zero local cases, no infections arising from this case have been detected in the community so far. This shows that our anti-epidemic measures are effective and the overall epidemic situation is kept in check. That said, there is certainly room for improvement in our anti-epidemic work. In particular, to create favourable conditions for the resumption of quarantine-free travel from Hong Kong to the Mainland, we must constantly review our measures and strive to do even better in every aspect.

How the epidemic has developed

Hong Kong recorded one local case in the past month, which involved a staff member of Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals. Although the case was not linked to previous local cases according to the results of genetic analysis, we dared not take it lightly and thus enforced strict compulsory quarantine and testing measures immediately. Apart from placing some 500 close contacts or other contacts (eg those living with the close contacts) under quarantine, cordoning off the building where the confirmed case lived and requiring some 400 residents there to undergo testing, we also required the workplace of the confirmed case to conduct deep cleaning and took environmental samples from the workplace to see whether it had been contaminated. As no other cases have been detected since the case was confirmed on October 8, we believe that the possibility of community infection is very low. It is particularly worth noting that the above confirmed case was identified through regular testing of targeted groups on a weekly basis, and the virus was also detected at about the same time in the sewage samples taken near the housing estate where the confirmed case lived via the sewage surveillance conducted in different districts. This demonstrates our ability to track down confirmed cases within a short period of time, which significantly reduces the risk of virus transmission in the community. Generally speaking, we believe that zero infection is still basically maintained in the community.

Anti-epidemic efforts

While keeping the epidemic in check, we are never complacent and always seeking to improve our anti-epidemic work in order to cope with the development of the epidemic. Currently, we are striving for the early resumption of quarantine-free travel from Hong Kong to the Mainland. The first meeting between the experts of the two places was held last month, in which relevant considerations and issues were discussed in detail. Noting the recent heated discussions in the community on how Hong Kong’s anti-epidemic measures should be enhanced to achieve the goal of quarantine-free travel, I would like to stress that we attach great importance to the Mainland experts’ opinions on our anti-epidemic work. And I have stated publicly that we will do our utmost to improve or strengthen any measures as requested by the Mainland side so that the anti-epidemic measures of both places can be more closely aligned with each other, thus ensuring that quarantine-free travel will not pose any additional risks. Even if, due to the actual situation in Hong Kong, there is any aspect that cannot be completely aligned with the Mainland’s practices, we will actively identify alternative ways to achieve the same anti-epidemic effect. With this principle in mind, we are working very hard to follow up on matters raised by the Mainland experts, and we have communicated with them at the working level. We hope that the second expert meeting will be held as soon as possible. Meanwhile, we have already implemented or announced some enhancement measures, such as increasing the testing frequency for airport staff to once every three days, strictly enforcing the requirement of using the LeaveHomeSafe mobile application when entering government buildings or offices with effect from November 1, arrangement by Hospital Authority for patients who have recovered from COVID-19 infection to be subject to a 14-day isolation after being discharged from hospital, and removing most quarantine exemption groups for inbound travellers.

The major measures introduced are set out here in chronological order:

Vaccination

While we are proactively improving the anti-epidemic measures, members of the public who eagerly look forward to the resumption of quarantine-free travel from Hong Kong to the Mainland may also contribute by joining efforts to boost the vaccination rate. Hong Kong is facing a prolonged delay in achieving the basic target of a 70% vaccination rate and the number of people receiving vaccines per day is fluctuating downwards. The situation can hardly be described as satisfactory. We have been using various means to encourage more people, in particular the elderly, to get vaccinated. Measures include enhancing publicity, sending outreach teams to communities and premises with elderly people, organising vaccination days with district groups, and setting up vaccination stations at public hospitals to enable patients visiting the hospitals for follow-up appointments to receive vaccination. As such, it is now very convenient for people to receive vaccination, what is lacking is the intention to do so. I call on members of the public: it is not enough to get yourselves vaccinated, please also actively encourage people around you to do the same as soon as possible in order to boost the overall vaccination rate in the community. Only then we will be able to achieve the shared goals of resuming quarantine-free travel with the Mainland and a normal life as early as possible.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam issued this article titled Striving to Further Improve Our Anti-epidemic Work on October 27.