By The SUN
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| Lo says only infected persons and inbound travelers will be tracked through the app (File) |
Secretary for Health,
Prof. Lo Chung-mau, has sought to allay concerns that the planned health code
could result in LeaveHomeSafe app users being forced to register their real
identities for Covid tracking.
Speaking at a media session after attending a radio program earlier today, Prof Lo said there will be no real-name registration with the app and no tracking except for inbound travelers and infected people.
For most people, he said nothing will change. Only infected people will be given a red code and their identities verified to ensure they don’t leave their place of isolation as required by law.
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| PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE |
“The "red code" is meant
for those who have confirmed infection by the PCR test (polymerase chain
reaction-based nucleic acid test). These people, they should have their
identity registered and the "red code" will ensure safety of the rest
of the community,” Lo said.
“In fact, by law, people who are confirmed to have the
COVID-19 infection should actually stay at the designated isolation area
whether it is a designated place or home isolation.”
Those who will be given the "yellow code" are
arriving passengers who will be prevented from entering certain high-risk areas
so they don’t expose the community to the risk of infection.
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Lo said the plan is to increase the restriction so the
government could perhaps reduce the designated hotel quarantine period.
“That is the whole purpose. If we want to reduce the
designated hotel quarantine period and to improve our international
communication, we will need this "yellow code" to more precisely
identify these people,” he said.
“For the rest of the public, there will not be any increase
in restriction and there will not be any tracking function.”
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Professor Lo reiterated that the
daily caseload could more than double in two weeks, which would mean 2,000
hospital beds for patients with acute illness could be used for coronavirus
patients.
Currently, he said non-Covid patients are already
being affected, and by the end of the month a quarter of non-emergency medical services
may be reduced.
But he said the government would not stop finding ways to reduce the infection figures.
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| Hung and Yuen are among 4 experts pushing radical changes in Covid control |
Microbiologist Yuen Kwok-yung
and clinical professor Ivan Hung have made the suggestion in an article they
penned with two other colleagues from the University of Hong Kong.
The four experts said the
Covid situation in Hong Kong is becoming endemic and that the Omicron variant
has evolved to be more “flu-like” given its potential to cause serious symptoms
and deaths.
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| Press for details |
They also called on the
government to stop locking down buildings and subjecting tenants to compulsory
testing, saying these measures are "expensive, disruptive and
wasteful."
"They should now be
abandoned because we do want a low level of virus circulation to boost our
airway mucosal immunity," they said.
To further boost local
immunity, they said authorities should approve vaccines for those aged six
months to three years old, and further push vaccination among elderly people by
enforcing the vaccine pass in more places like markets and supermarkets.
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| PRESS FOR MORE DETAILS |
At the same time, they said
the social distancing measures should be relaxed to give the local population “background
immunity” protection from Omicron sub-variants.
However, they said universal masking is still necessary to reduce exposure to the virus.
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| PADALA NA! |
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