By The SUN
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| CE Lam says imported cases will add to the burden of medical frontliners |
Chief Executive Carrie Lam has dashed hopes that a
flight ban on nine countries including the Philippines will be lifted anytime
soon, saying people will have to wait until the current surge in coronavirus
cases in Hong Kong has been put under control.
Speaking at her daily press update on the Covid situation, Mrs Lam said, “This is not the time to immediately lift the
bans or else as a result a lot of people will rush to come back and inevitably
amongst some of those people there will be infected cases. There may even be
critically ill cases arising from the returns and that would add a lot of
pressure to our public hospital system.”
She was responding to a question on whether the flight
ban should already be lifted, given that the number of imported cases lately is
just a fraction of locally acquired infections.
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| PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE |
The flight ban, originally imposed on Jan 8, has been repeatedly
extended, with the latest extension set to expire on Apr 20. Aside from the
Philippines, it also covers Australia, Canada, France, India, Nepal, Pakistan, the
United States and United Kingdom.
Anybody who had stayed in any of these nine countries for
at least two hours within the past 14 days will not be allowed to enter Hong
Kong.
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| PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE |
Mrs Lam cited the recent case of a CX flight from
Indonesia, in which more than 20 passengers tested positive on arrival
in Hong Kong.
“We had to look after those cases. I need to transport those cases either into hospitals or into isolation facilities,” she said.
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Such operation added to the burden of the city’s
frontline health workers, she said. “At this moment, it is not the time to add
more pressure to their work.”
She said she has plans to open up Hong Kong again but
they will have to wait until after the fifth wave of the contagion has been put
under control, and if feasible, after a universal testing is carried out to track down
the remaining infections in the city.
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| Pindutin para sa detalye |
The CE also dismissed a suggestion that the government’s
activation of an emergency alert system to inform the public that Queen
Elizabeth Hospital had been designated as a Covid-only treatment facility had
caused unnecessary alarm.
“I am aware that some people
in society thought this was a good idea...They said they are happy to get news
from the government through this channel,” she said.
Mrs Lam justified the use of the
alert system by saying the city is “clearly in a public emergency situation
right now” and that people needed to be informed because Queen Elizabeth had
the busiest accident and emergency departments among all public hospitals.
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| The 280-bed San Tin isolation facility started taking in patients today |
The focus of her daily
briefing was, however, the construction of more isolation and quarantine
facilities on seven more sites, including a plot on the Lok Ma Chau loop and
the Kai Tak cruise terminal.
Ideally, she said all those
who will test positive can be moved to an isolation facility, while close
contacts are placed in quarantine centers.
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| Press for details |
Separately, Secretary for
Development Michael Wong said two isolation facilities have been put into
service starting this month.
The Tsing Yi site which has
3,900 beds opened at the start of the month while a second one in San Tin, Yuen
Long with 2,800 beds, has just accepted its first patients.
Wong said that six other
community isolation facilities built with help from the mainland will start
operating later this month.
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| BASAHIN ANG DETALYE! |
After the conversion of
public housing blocks and more than 30 hotels into isolation facilities, more
than 70,000 units or beds are expected to be opened for use by Covid-19
patients in the next couple of months.
Security chief Chris Tang
said these facilities will provide a selection of food to patients, as well as
free newspapers, toys and internet connection. Cleaners will also be on duty
around the clock to maintain hygiene.
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| PADALA NA! |
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