Health Minister Reiterates Zero-Covid Goal

Chan rebukes those who think zero-Covid is "unattainable"

The claws were out when Secretary for Health Sophia Chan Siu-mee admonished a leading epidemiologist for criticizing the Hong Kong government's latest policy change of having patients who have recovered from Covid-19 to do another two weeks in a designated quarantine hospital.

Chan said the University of Hong Kong's Ben Cowling, who is public health expert, was wrong to call the measure "unethical", as he was going against the government's zero-Covid goal, which was "in line with the aspirations of our community".

Cowling says new policy wastes resources

She also suggested his criticisms of the policy were based on a flawed premise.

Ouch.

"Questioning longer isolation of patients to further reduce risk of virus shedding is premised on a small risk being acceptable," Chan said.

"This goes against the government's zero-Covid goal, which aims to prevent importation of cases and spread of the virus in the community. More importantly, measures taken by the government for the community's interest must not be called 'unethical'."

As of Wednesday, all recovered Covid-19 patients must go through another 14 days of quarantine at North Lantau Hospital Hong Kong Infection Control Centre, which means spending a minimum of 24 days in treatment and post-discharge quarantine before being allowed to go home. 

Chan said the new rules were designed to "further minimize any residual risk of discharged patients shedding virus in the community", adding such a threat "admittedly is low but not zero".

Lantau North Hospital takes recovered patients

Two days earlier, Cowling, who is currently going through 21 days' quarantine, went on Twitter to say the new policy was a "waste of resources and actively harming the patient with no community benefit to offset against". He also said the policy was not medically justified.

Chan said she respected his opinion but disagreed with academics who considered zero-Covid "unattainable, unsustainable or unworthy".

"It is understandable that they perceive our stringent but necessary measures to maintain zero-Covid as harsh," she added. "However, zero-Covid is our best strategy not only on public health but also social and economic considerations, and is in line with the aspirations of our community."

What are the aspirations of our community? Do they really want zero-Covid, or they are willing to live with the virus?

Let's take a referendum on this -- oh wait we can't.

So Chan is assuming she is speaking for the majority of "our community" that we all want zero-Covid.

Do Hongkongers want zero-Covid too?

It's interesting she has sharply rebuked Cowling, but it's Chan's demonstration of her towing the government's line that Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor so desperately wants to show Beijing that Hong Kong can achieve zero-Covid to open the border.

Hong Kong practically has zero cases except for imported ones. If anything Lam could and should boost the vaccination rate, particularly among the elderly. We are all waiting for more stringent measures to take place, but nothing yet so far...