By The SUN
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| All patients outside hospitals are to be moved indoors as temperatures are set to plunge |
Health officials said Covid-19 patients waiting for admission in cold weather outside hospitals were to be all moved indoors Friday, as temperatures are forecast to drop to as low as 11 degrees over the weekend.
The announcement
came as a total of 3629 Covid-19 cases were confirmed Friday, down nearly half
from the previous day’s tally of 6,116.
However there was a
record 7,600 preliminary confirmed cases, suggesting the drastic drop was more the
result of late reporting rather than an actual easing in the spread of the
virus.
Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan
of the Centre for Health Protection confirmed this, saying 4800 tests were already
at the Department of Health laboratory being tested and hopefully these will be
confirmed by the day’s end.
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She urged private testing
contractors to submit positive samples as soon as possible so they can be
confirmed.
She said that of the
confirmed cases, 52 carried the Delta strain while 2,136 cases were likely to
be Omicron. The result of tests on the remaining 106 samples were still
pending.
Dr Sara Ho of the
Hospital Authority reported that 3,099 patients were being treated at three
infectious disease centers and public hospitals while 2,200 others with mild or
no symptoms are at Penny’s Bay Isolation Centre.
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For the past 24 hours,
10 more people have died. The details of the eight were announced in a press
release the previous night, while the two others involved a 62-year-old man and
a 96-year-old woman.
Ten other patients are
in critical condition, but Dr Ho did not give particulars.
She said 251
patients had been discharged from hospitals, but they remained at full capacity
because of the long waiting list for beds.
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She also said that the Hospital Authority has started vacating some indoor spaces inside hospitals like out-patient clinics, staff rooms and conference rooms, so patients need not wait outside in the cold while waiting to be admitted.
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| Ambulances keep arriving with residents from elderly care homes (RTHK) |
Dr Ho said all the patients will be moved indoors within the day.
“It will get colder,
no one wants elderly people waiting in the cold outside the hospitals so we are
doing extra work to get them in. We will leave no stone unturned to get this
done,” said Dr Ho.
To make room for
them, she said patients in stable condition are being moved out of hospitals to
isolation facilities. However, as soon as beds are vacated, she said ambulances
would come in, bringing residents from elderly care homes.
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She appealed to
staff managing care homes to accept patients who have recovered back in their
facilities to free up much-needed hospital beds. She said the HA will send
outreach teams to the care homes to support them in looking after residents.
An additional 30
care homes have reported infections among residents and/or staff, according to
Dr Chuang, making a total of 150 struggling to cope with outbreaks from the
fifth wave.
Dr Ho also appealed
to the public not to send any more stuff to hospitals like warm clothes and
masks as they have sufficient supplies. She thanked the kind-hearted donors but
said the donations hamper the work of frontline staff.
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She reiterated an
invitation to private doctors to do parttime work for the HA, particularly in
the accident and emergency stations.
Asked
by a reporter about complaints that patients at Penny’s Bay are not being
tested regularly, Dr Ho said they will contact the contractors and tell them to
improve their service.
Another
question concerning the number of foreign domestic helpers among the confirmed
cases was answered by Dr Chuang. She confirmed that FDHs are among the
confirmed cases, but said she did not have the exact figures.
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Asked about reports that some FDHs are stuck outside hospitals with nowhere to go, Dr Chuang said they should remain where they are and wait for the CHP to contact them on when they can move to an isolation facility.
