Covid-19 Inquiry Welcome, but with Caveats

Many agree to an inquiry, but after the pandemic is over

After infectious diseases expert Yuen Kwok-yung pitched the idea of an independent inquiry into the Hong Kong government's handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, others are putting in their two bits as well.

Fellow experts David Hui Shu-cheong and Leung Chi-chiu agreed, but said the inquiry should start later.

Meanwhile professor Lau Yu-lung in the University of Hong Kong Paediatrics agrees in principle, and adds the inquiry should be headed by a judge and that it should start after the World Health Organisation declares the pandemic over.

Hui says inquiry should start later, not now

However, Executive Council convenor and chairperson of the New People's Party Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee threw in her opinion and as expected, she had many caveats. 

She did not like the idea of independent judges heading the inquiry because they are not policy experts, but isn't that the point?

Ip also said the inquiry should be held after the WHO declares the pandemic over, as there are still new variants. But as they are not as life-threatening as the original Covid-19, there is an argument to have it sooner rather than later.

Nevertheless, she did acknowledge there was a lack of support for infected patients at the peak of the crisis last year, saying the review should look into how to better mobilise social resources and how to maintain medical services when handling a large number of infected residents.

In addition Ip suggested looking into ways to make good use of technology and mobilise civil servants in handling major crises -- isn't that what they did in the latter half, when there was not enough manpower for essential services? 

Ip says officials should not be targeted

But perhaps most importantly, she stressed the inquiry should not target government officials who she says worked hard over the past three years.

"Everyone was handling it hand learning along the way, as well as optimising measures. We should not hold anyone accountable for everything, but should instead look for shortcomings and optimise procedures," she said.

While a blame game is not productive, an inquiry needs to uncover what happened and why, and how to make things better in the future.

But in some cases, there were things the health experts suggested and the government did not take the advice, or processes were completely mismanaged or incompetent. The design of the LeaveHomeSafe app comes to mind... 

Most would agree the community vaccination clinics were well organised, but did the government do enough to encourage people, particularly the elderly to get jabbed? Why did the authorities not clamp down on mis- and disinformation on vaccines and how many vials of vaccines were wasted? 

Taxpayers deserve to know what happened, and an inquiry -- if it ever happens -- is a good place to start. But caveats aren't very helpful when the government lacks integrity and transparency...

Get the Fourth Jab Now

Over 81 percent of fourth jabs in HK are the bivalent vaccine

It is heartening to know a lot of people in Hong Kong have signed up to have the bivalent booster vaccine, a five-fold jump from last week.

Leung says fourth jab prevents severe illness

A week ago, 9,232 people got the fourth shot, but this week it jumped to 47,742, with 81 percent of them opting for the BioNTech bivalent jab, the rest Sinovac.

Respiratory specialist Dr Leung Chi-chiu appealed to the elderly and other high-risk groups, including those living in care homes and those who are immunocompromised or suffering from chronic diseases to get their fourth shot, as the number of infected cases is on the rise.

"A fourth jab is mainly to prevent hospitalisation, severe illness and death," he said.

The last point should be enough to motivate people, no?

University of Hong Kong microbiologist Dr Ho Pak-leung said the government should encourage residents 6o years and older to get their fourth dose as soon as possible. 

Ho says over 700K elderly still need fourth jab

He cited 95 percent of the city's virus-related fatalities last month involved people who were above the age of 60. Ho added 700,000 elderly were eligible to get the fourth jab but still hadn't done so.

Seriously -- what are they waiting for?

Hong Kong Could See Over 10K Cases Next Week

Au (left) says the public needs to take safety precautions

Hong Kong is seeing a seriously large uptick in the number of Covid-19 cases -- the vast majority of them are local infections, not imported.

On August 25, the city reported 8,579 cases, including 297 imported ones.

Albert Au Ka-wing from the Centre for Health Protection warned the daily number of new infections could soon pass the 10,000 mark next week. The last time it reached 10,000 cases was on March 25 with 10,405 infections.

Police Commissioner Siu recently caught Covid

"There is a quite rapid increase in cases, indicating that the transmission in the community is increasing. There is a need for the general public to take additional precautionary measures in preventing transmission and infection," Au said.

Seems like that advice was not heeded by several senior government officials who have now caught the virus.

They include Deputy Chief Secretary Warner Cheuk Wing-hing and Commerce Secretary Algermon Yau Ying-wah, as well as immigration chief Au Ka-wang, and police commissioner Raymond Siu Chak-yee.

With the number of cases surging, infectious diseases expert Leung Chi-chiu suggested that people cut down on their social activities.

"Now there are up to 5,000 hospital beds [for Covid patients]. If we have say 14,000 cases a day and every day around 500 are admitted to hospital for eight to nine days, our beds will all be occupied," he said.

Leung says socialising needs to be cut down

So basically people are back to being shut in their homes as much as possible in the sweltering heat, unable to meet with friends and family after their mental health has taken such a toll in almost three years.

People need to have some kind of hope, that there is a light at the end of the tunnel instead of constantly implementing more and more severe social-distancing measures.

It's no wonder more and more people are packing up and leaving Hong Kong. While for some it was the national security law, others have had enough of the city's "zero-Covid" strategy that seems to yield even more cases... 

Is He or Isn't He?

Xi has yet to announce if he's attending in person or not

Hong Kong has had over 1,000 Covid-19 cases a day, today there are over 1,700. The Centre for Health Protection has warned it could go over the 2,000 mark soon.

It seemed the chances of Chinese President Xi Jinping coming to Hong Kong would be slimmer by the day.

So it was very surprising to the territory that a few hours ago Xinhua announced that Xi will attend the 25th anniversary of the handover celebrations and swear in John Lee Ka-chiu as the next chief executive.

Chan (left) and Tsang have tested positive

The key word is "attend", as it was not clear if he would come in person, or participate virtually. Zoom, perhaps?

Originally guests attending the event would have to quarantine in the hotels near the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre for seven days, but that has been cut to one day, but not the battery of PCR tests.

It was also reported yesterday that incoming chief secretary Eric Chan Kwok-ki and constitutional and mainland affairs minister Erick Tsang Kwok-wai both tested positive for Covid-19. 

There were concerns that Chan may have infected Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor as he spoke to her on Monday, but the media was told that both were wearing masks and at a distance from each other so she was not considered a close contact.

No Penny's Bay for her...

Leung advises swearing-in ceremony kept simple

Infectious disease expert Leung Chi-chiu of Chinese University says it's hard to tell how quickly Chan and Tsang will recover and if they can attend the July 1 ceremony.

"Because most of our senior officials have been undergoing Covid-19 testing regularly, their recent positive tests might indicate that they have just developed the disease. For that, because of the new onset disease, it's difficult to tell at this moment whether their disease course will be short enough to have completed recovery by July 1," Leung said.

He suggested that the ceremony next week be kept as simple as possible, and everyone have their masks on and avoid mingling too much. 

But back to Xi... what are the chances of him actually coming in person next Friday?