Covid Patient on the Lam

Li was taken back to hospital after he was caught in Mongkok

 

There was a sigh of relief in Hong Kong after a 63-year-old man who is infected with the coronavirus was caught on Sunday evening after he escaped the hospital on Friday.

Li Wan-keung was found near Shanghai Street and Changsha Street in Mongkok late on Sunday evening and taken back to Queen Elizabeth Hospital by officers wearing protective gear.

Li Wan-keung was on the lam for 54 hrs

The man was out on the lam for 54 hours and refused to tell the authorities where he went, which will make contract tracing next to impossible. There are concerns he might have visited some brothels which are near where he was arrested, which makes this already scary story sound seedier.

"We will check security camera footage from shops, dash cameras of vehicles and buildings to find out where he had been during the period he was missing," a source said yesterday.

It is expected Li will be discharged from the hospital on January 18 and then he will be formally arrested. It is illegal for anyone who is in quarantine or isolated in hospital to flee. If convicted, people can face a fine of up to HK$5,000 and two months' imprisonment.

This was not the first time Li tried to flee the hospital. He had tried to leave the day before and it was reported medical staff found him very uncooperative; it took some convincing for him to cooperate with treatments and tests. 

Apparently on Friday the medical staff, dressed in full protective gear claimed Li "moved too quickly" for them to catch him.

Security will be beefed up at all hospitals now

Now the Hospital Authority is looking into beefing up its security following this incident, and Li's ward will have security guards watching the entrance and security will be stepped up in other hospitals.

Li seems to be an anomaly, as most patients just want to get well as quickly as possible so that they can leave the hospital and so they are willing to take whatever medication or treatment necessary.

Hopefully Li will be out of action as it were for the next few weeks, gets better and cooperates with the authorities and healthcare workers. We all need to work together to fight this virus!

Oh did I just parrot a government slogan?!