Following is the transcript of remarks made by the Secretary for Food and Health, Professor Sophia Chan, at a media session after visiting public hospitals, today (December 27):
Reporter: Do you expect Hong Kong to see the fifth wave of infection and how bad will it be? Also, is there any contingency plan in case of any Omicron community outbreak?
The Secretary for Food and Health: First of all, before Christmas, I chaired a meeting together with the Department of Health and the Hospital Authority, and of course the Food and Health Bureau, to discuss and prepare for our response plan in case Omicron has an outbreak in Hong Kong. We have discussed the prevention and response plan in particular our capacity – testing capacity, our quarantine facilities, our isolation facilities, as well as what if Omicron really has an outbreak in Hong Kong, whether we need to tighten our social distancing measures, and so on. Of course, vaccination is the most important. Taking COVID-19 vaccine is an effective measure to protect ourselves, especially the elderly in Hong Kong who has a relatively low vaccination rate. Vaccination can protect them from Omicron and also from the outbreak. So this is number one.
We are doing the assessment constantly in terms of the global situation and also putting places with Omicron cases – all different countries and places – into our Group A specified places. This already is a tightened measure. That means those who are not Hong Kong residents and those who are unvaccinated would not be able to come to Hong Kong if they are from Group A countries/places.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
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