Chief Executive Carrie Lam today met the head of the National Health Commission's COVID-19 leading task force Prof Liang Wannian who arrived in Hong Kong this week and the Mainland's expert delegation led by him.

Also joining the meeting were Secretary for Food & Health Prof Sophia Chan, Secretary for Labour & Welfare Dr Law Chi-kwong and Secretary for Constitutional & Mainland Affairs Erick Tsang.

Mrs Lam expressed her sincere gratitude to Prof Liang and the experts for their meetings, since their arrival on Monday, one after another with the relevant officials of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government and the Hospital Authority representatives, the Government's anti-epidemic expert advisory group and the Advisory Panel on COVID-19 Vaccines, and the faculty of medicine under a local university.

The experts also visited places including the residential care homes for the elderly (RCHEs) and a public hospital to look into the anti-epidemic work of Hong Kong.

Mrs Lam was grateful for the close exchanges that Prof Liang had with Hong Kong's anti-epidemic team over the past few days, in which he had tendered objective and practical advice in a number of areas having regard to the Mainland's experience of effectively fighting the COVID-19 epidemic as well as to the epidemic development and actual circumstances of Hong Kong.

Of these areas, in view of the tens of thousands of confirmed cases every day at present, Mrs Lam concurred with the experts that the current priority for the Hong Kong SAR Government was to focus resources on the patients most in need, prevent mild cases from turning severe, and reduce the number of severe cases and deaths.

The Hospital Authority has been gradually converting beds in suitable hospitals in its different clusters for admitting confirmed patients. Tin Shui Wai Hospital and North Lantau Hospital were pioneers in this.

The hospitals would transfer in-patients to other hospitals, so as to focus manpower and resources on coping with the rising number of confirmed cases.

Meanwhile, the Food & Health Bureau was encouraging private hospitals to assist in the treatment of non-COVID-19 patients such that the pressure on the public healthcare system could be alleviated.

At the meeting, both sides also had intensive discussions about the large number of confirmed cases and deaths involving residents of the RCHEs and residential care homes for persons with disabilities (RCHDs) during the fifth wave of the epidemic.

The Hong Kong SAR Government fully agreed with the delegation and was pressing ahead with arranging for those residents to be vaccinated.

It was focusing efforts on mobilising more medical workers in both the public and private sectors to form outreach medical teams to all the RCHEs and RCHDs, to help those not yet vaccinated but were fit enough to get their jabs, thereby strengthening protection for them and reducing their risk of serious illness and death. This outreach vaccination exercise was aimed to be completed within two weeks’ time.

The Hong Kong SAR Government would also transfer infected elderly people to the community isolation and treatment facility dedicated for residents of RCHEs and RCHDs set up at AsiaWorld-Expo and the one that was soon to come into operation at the Kai Tak Cruise Terminal.

Elderly people in stable condition could be transferred by the Hospital Authority to the holding centres set up at sports centres to alleviate the pressure on hospitals and the RCHEs.

Mrs Lam said the central authorities have arranged for three batches of experts in total thus far to come to Hong Kong, helping the Hong Kong SAR Government examine the epidemic development in an in-depth manner under the current severe situation and strengthen its measures for early identification, early isolation and early treatment.

On behalf of the Hong Kong SAR Government and the Hong Kong people, Mrs Lam expresses her gratitude to them.

She said the ceaseless support from the country is testimony to the care of the central authorities and the institutional strength of “one country, two systems” and has boosted the city's anti-epidemic efforts. 

“I will continue to lead the Hong Kong SAR Government to assume the primary responsibility steadfastly to stabilise the fifth wave of the epidemic early. As long as members of the public stay confident and united, we can soon overcome the epidemic.”