The Centre for Health Protection of the Department of Health of the Hong Kong SAR Government reported on February 24 that as of 00:00 on the same day, there were 8,798 new confirmed cases of covid-19 in Hong Kong, of which 8,795 were local cases, a new high for two consecutive days, and the cumulative death rate of this round of the epidemic was 203.
What are the changes in the lives of Hong Kong residents under the epidemic situation, and what is the direction of the epidemic in Hong Kong? "Life Times" (search for "LT0385" in WeChat to pay attention to) interviewed experts to give the latest judgment on the epidemic situation in Hong Kong.
Experts interviewed
Zheng Fuzeng, vice president and chief physician of Henan Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine
Professor Tan Xiaodong, School of Public Health, Wuhan University
This article is written by | Life Times reporter Zhang Jian
This article was edited | Xu Wenting
The fifth wave of the epidemic in Hong Kong is severe
At the beginning of 2022, a series of confirmed cases of the Olmi kerong variant and the Delta variant were found in Hong Kong, triggering the fifth wave of the epidemic. The HKSAR Government has taken measures such as foreign import prevention, suspension of school classes, cancellation of Chinese New Year activities, encouragement of COVID-19 vaccination, and the launch of the fifth round of "anti-epidemic fund" to actively fight the epidemic.
However, on February 9, 1,161 new cases were confirmed in Hong Kong, a new record in two years.
On 10 February, a 94-year-old patient was confirmed to die, the first death in Six months in Hong Kong. Subsequently, there were spillover cases of the epidemic in Shenzhen, Dongguan, Jiangmen, Foshan and Chenzhou, Hunan, in Guangdong, and the number of confirmed cases in Hong Kong continued to rise.
On February 23, at the Kennedy Town Playground Mobile Testing Station in Hong Kong, medical staff guided the public to do nucleic acid testing.
An exclusive anti-epidemic team of about 300 taxis from Hong Kong was officially put into service on the 18th.
On February 18, the Hong Kong Hospital Authority said that the use of quarantine beds had reached the 90% cap, but many people were still waiting to be admitted. "Quarantine facilities in Hong Kong are far from enough." Fan Hongling, chairman of the Hong Kong Hospital Authority, said on February 22 that there have been cases in 3,300 buildings in the large-scale community transmission of the epidemic in Hong Kong; the proportion of initial positives found during the compulsory inspection of enclosures is getting higher and higher, rising from less than 0.5% at the beginning of the month to 2% to 8%; the sewage monitoring system shows that the vast majority of samples are positive.
The hospital was full of patients, and some patients were treated outdoors.
In a public hospital in Hong Kong, emergency room staff work.
Recently, Zhang Boli, a member of the expert group of the Central Steering Group for Epidemic Prevention and Control and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, used the term "tsunami-style outbreak" to describe the epidemic in Hong Kong. "The failure to detect and block the source of infection in time in the early stage, coupled with the increased spread of the Omiljun strain, is the main reason for the large-scale spread of the epidemic." Chamberlain said.
Buildings where the case lived/visited within 14 days
Source: Department of Health, Hong Kong
The Hong Kong SAR government has stepped up prevention and control efforts: do a good job of early detection and early isolation, cut off the chain of virus transmission; divert treatment to reduce severe and fatal cases; strictly abide by foreign border control measures and implement flight "circuit breaker mechanisms"; further tighten social distancing measures to reduce the flow of people; and increase vaccination rates.
Hong Kong citizens lined up to get vaccinated.
Carrie Lam, chief executive of the Hong Kong SAR government, announced that three mandatory nucleic acid tests will be implemented in March. From 24 February, the "Vaccine Pass" measure will be implemented in stages, and in the first phase, the public must be vaccinated with one dose of the new crown vaccine before they can enter restaurants, shopping malls and other places.
Affected by the epidemic, most office workers in Hong Kong have begun to work from home. Mr. Chen, who lives in Kowloon, told the "Life Times" reporter that the dinner market near his home has stopped dine-in and can only choose to pack; recently cross-border truck drivers have been diagnosed, affecting the supply of vegetables in Hong Kong, resulting in soaring vegetable prices; after the serious epidemic, many people in Hong Kong will be Lianhua Qing plague as a "body medicine", and there is a buying boom in the streets, and many pharmacies have long been sold out.
The Mainland fully supports Hong Kong's fight against the epidemic
After the outbreak of the fifth wave of the epidemic in Hong Kong, the party and the state always paid attention to the development of the epidemic, General Secretary Xi Jinping proposed "three alls, two guarantees", and the central and local departments should fully support Hong Kong's stable control of the epidemic. A spokesman for the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council said in response to an inquiry that in times of crisis, the motherland will always be a strong backer for Hong Kong. As long as Hong Kong has a request, the motherland will certainly respond.
At the most severe juncture of the fifth wave of the epidemic in Hong Kong, the central government set up a special class for the mainland to support Hong Kong's anti-epidemic work, and multiple departments jointly set up a medical material supply guarantee team.
On 18 February, the five working groups of the Mainland Support Hong Kong Anti-epidemic Work Class and the Hong Kong SAR Government exchanged briefings on their respective work progress and connected on the most urgent work in Hong Kong's fight against the epidemic, including improving nucleic acid testing capacity, increasing admission rates, reducing mortality, establishing square cabin hospitals, and supplying medical supplies and daily necessities. On the evening of the same day, the Hong Kong SAR government proposed the first batch of material lists, including N95 masks, rapid antigen detection reagent kits, lianhua qing plague capsules, etc.
On February 19, the first batch of material supply demand was exceeded. As of 23 February, the Mainland Support Hong Kong Anti-epidemic Work Special Class has held four scheduling meetings, exceeded the first batch of 7 types of material supply demand, and completed the second batch of enterprises in urgent need of medical supplies. In addition to the first batch of 150,000 boxes of anti-epidemic Chinese medicine donated by the state, more than 300,000 boxes of Chinese medicine were shipped to Hong Kong in batches.
300,000 boxes of Chinese medicine were shipped to Hong Kong in batches.
On February 23, a batch of epidemic prevention materials worth 13.65 million yuan led by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology rushed to Hong Kong, including 200,000 boxes of Lianhua Qingxiao capsules and Lianhua Qing cough tablets, of which Lianhua Qingxiao capsules are representative products of the "three medicines and three parties" of Traditional Chinese medicine to fight the epidemic.
Zheng Fuzeng, vice president and chief physician of Henan Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, told the "Life Times" reporter that traditional Chinese medicine has a history of fighting the epidemic for thousands of years, and the strategy to deal with infectious diseases such as the new crown is to "respond to changes with no change", and Chinese medicine does not directly kill the virus, but improves human immunity and effectively reduces the harm of the virus to the human body. The anti-epidemic practice in the past two years has shown that the early intervention of traditional Chinese medicine can block the development of the disease of new crown patients and is conducive to blocking the spread of the epidemic; the use of integrated traditional Chinese and Western medicine for severe patients can reduce mortality and improve the cure rate; and the use of integrated traditional Chinese and Western medicine rehabilitation treatment in the recovery period can reduce sequelae. With the participation of traditional Chinese medicine, the severe illness rate of many sporadic outbreaks in the mainland is very low, and there are almost no deaths.
A double-blind controlled trial of Jinhua Qinggan granules in Pakistan showed that the effective rate of the Chinese medicine for mild to moderate COVID-19 cases was about 82.67%.
Professor Iqbal Chaudhry, Director of the International Institute of Chemistry and Life Sciences at the University of Karachi, said: "We have tested it on patients infected with different COVID-19 variants and we expect it (Golden Flower Clear Sense Granules) to be as effective on the Omicron variant as it would be when dealing with other variants. ”
Since the beginning of February, medical staff and anti-epidemic materials supported by the Mainland have arrived in Hong Kong one after another.
On February 10, the first medical team from Guangdong arrived in Hong Kong to carry out its work. On 17 February, the Mainland's expert team supporting Hong Kong's anti-epidemic epidemiology team arrived in Hong Kong to carry out its work, accompanied by 8 testing personnel, 2 mobile nucleic acid test trucks and 1 material transport support vehicle. On 19 February, the second batch of mainland anti-epidemic medical and epidemic prevention teams dispatched by the Mainland Support Hong Kong Anti-epidemic Work Special Class went to Hong Kong, with a total of 114 people.
On 17 February, the Mainland's expert group on anti-epidemic epidemiology in support of Hong Kong assembled at the Shenzhen Bay Port.
Mobile nucleic acid test trucks arrive in Hong Kong.
On 19 February, the second batch of mainland anti-epidemic teams arrived in Hong Kong.
On February 22, the construction of four square cabin hospitals in Hong Kong with the assistance of the central government began construction in Tsing Yi, Qian XinTian Shopping Mall, Tam Wai in Yuen Long and Flood Bridge, which are expected to provide 14,000 to 17,000 isolation units for Hong Kong after they are all put into use.
The construction of 4 prescription cabin hospitals aided by the central government began.
The Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development of the HKSAR Government, Mr Edward Yau, said that the HKSAR Government is very grateful to the Central Government for its concern for the Hong Kong people and its full support for Hong Kong's anti-epidemic work. All walks of life in Hong Kong also thanked the state for its support for Hong Kong's fight against the epidemic and expressed their full cooperation and response to the SAR Government's anti-epidemic work.
All walks of life in Hong Kong thank the state for its support to Hong Kong's fight against the epidemic.
"The central government is the backbone of Hong Kong." Mr. Chen excitedly expressed his gratitude to the central government for all aspects of support and looked forward to controlling the epidemic and resuming normal life as soon as possible. Carrie Lam, chief executive of the Hong Kong SAR Government, said on February 22 that with the full support of the central government and the full cooperation of all sectors of society, the SAR Government is determined to respond to challenges with a firm stance and strong conviction and lead Hong Kong out of the "epidemic" situation.
The epidemic in Hong Kong is still on the rise
"At present, the development of the epidemic in Hong Kong is still in an upward stage." Tan Xiaodong, a professor at the School of Public Health of Wuhan University, said that the current level of testing in Hong Kong has not yet met the needs of society, and there may be a big gap between the number of positive cases tested daily and the actual number of infections.
In response to the fifth wave of the epidemic, Hong Kong should learn from Wuhan's epidemic prevention experience, and the most urgent thing at present is to implement stricter quarantine measures, such as community closure management, reducing the flow of people, gatherings, etc. According to the experience accumulated by the mainland in the past two years, the most effective means to stop the spread of the epidemic is isolation. When the Wuhan epidemic was in the stage of a full-scale outbreak of community infection, it achieved a cliff-like decline in new cases through strong isolation measures.
Zhang Boli also said that at present, the Hong Kong SAR government should coordinate the resources of all parties to cure quickly and change changes in order to reduce the rapid rise of new daily cases. First, it is necessary to be accurate, that is, to isolate who must be accurate; second, to be ruthless, the measures must be decisive and resolute, and it is also a danger to be separated; the third is to mobilize and lay out in an all-round way, and it is extremely important to seize the time to build the square cabin hospital.
"As long as the prevention and control is lax, it will form a large-scale transmission, which is the characteristic of Omi kerong, and its asymptomatic infection is large, making it particularly difficult to trace the source of the virus." Tan Xiaodong said that the outbreak of the epidemic shows that there are still great loopholes in the prevention and control of the epidemic in Hong Kong, including insufficient testing levels and poor isolation measures, which reminds us that we must not be paralyzed. "In the fight against the virus, the highest human right is human life, a healthy life."
On February 21, Zhong Nanshan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, encouraged all walks of life in Hong Kong to fight the epidemic and overcome the difficulties together through a video: "We will not tolerate natural infections leading to a large number of elderly deaths, and the policy is still to strive for dynamic clearance." ”
He also gave Hong Kong residents 3 suggestions for epidemic prevention:
1
Preventing transmission is key
Do a good job of personal protection and reduce social contact; close contacts should be checked regularly, and if they are found positive, they should immediately contact the medical department; separate patients and healthy people, and those who have been diagnosed should be isolated separately; serious patients should be hospitalized in time, preferably concentrated in a hospital, convenient for management and treatment.
2
Intensive vaccinations
According to the UK Health Safety Agency, the case fatality rate of two doses of the vaccine will be reduced by more than half at all ages, and the mortality rate will be further reduced if the third dose is given. Elderly people in Hong Kong receive a third dose of vaccination, which can significantly reduce the case fatality rate.
3
Reserve drug therapy
For example, Paxlovid, Chinese mainland BRII 196-198 antibodies in the United States, and some proprietary Chinese medicines that have been proven effective by evidence-based medicine are effective for reducing symptoms, shortening the course of treatment, and reducing the incidence of severe disease. ▲
Editor: Jie Zhang