Coronavirus: Hong Kong still faces ‘public health emergency’, minister warns, saying changes to pandemic curbs should depend on scientific data

The coronavirus is still a “public health emergency” in Hong Kong and changes to pandemic control measures should be based on scientific data and not the “comments of one or two people”, the health minister has said.

Writing on his official blog on Thursday, Secretary for Health Lo Chung-mau cautioned against assuming that a string of big events the city had hosted recently meant that it had returned to normality.

“Recently, there have been people saying that the city has completely returned to normality after it hosted two or three large international conferences and the rugby Sevens in November, and they have requested the government to lift all anti-pandemic measures, saying we are no longer in a public health emergency situation,” Lo said.

He added the Omicron variant was more serious than the seasonal flu, even though it could not be compared with diseases such as Ebola, severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) or even the original coronavirus variant that emerged in early 2020.

“Whether the pandemic’s effects on the public health situation is a state of emergency … depends on factors such as scientific data and global conditions, rather than the holding of one or two events or the comments of one or two people,” Lo said.

Without specifying, the health minister criticised political groups and health experts that sought further relaxation of the city’s social-distancing curbs after officials hailed the success of the Global Financial Leaders’ Investment Summit and the Sevens tournament.

With thousands of new Covid-19 emerging daily in the city, the pandemic continued to threaten high-risk groups, Lo said, adding 10 children aged below 11 had died this year, a figure which was much higher than the annual number of fatalities for the seasonal flu.