Legal Affairs EP09 | Vitus Leung expounds on profound significance of Mainland's support in HK's COVID fight

The fifth wave of infections in Hong Kong remains worrying. Earlier last month, President Xi Jinping gave important policy instructions, stressing that the SAR government must take up the main responsibility to mobilize all available forces and resources and take all necessary measures to rein in the epidemic and ensure the safety and health of HK people.

In this episode of Legal Affairs, Lawrence Ma, Chairman of the Hong Kong Foundation for Legal Exchange, invites Dr. Vitus Leung, Deputy Director of the Hong Kong Auxiliary Medical Service, to talk about the current situation of HK's fight against the epidemic and the significance behind the Central Government's important support for the SAR.

As a matter of fact, the shortage of resources has been one of the knottiest problems in HK. Long before the emergence of the Omicron virus, and even before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, HK's public medical system has been facing the problems of shortage of equipment and manpower, and authorities have started to discuss the introduction of overseas-trained doctors back then.

During the latest outbreak, the HK government has also been trying to mobilize government employees and deploy them in various areas to support the fight against the epidemic to the greatest extent. Dr. Leung said that hardly any government in the world can handle this situation well in the face of a surge in the number of COVID cases.

In an effort to contain the epidemic, the Central Government, which has sufficient experience and manpower to fight the epidemic, offered timely help to the SAR, sending medical equipment, epidemiologists, and construction teams to support HK at this critical time, which effectively alleviated the pressure of material supply and isolation facilities that HK faced.

In addition, Dr. Leung also talked about universal mandatory testing and HK's vaccination rate. He stressed that the most important thing is to conduct mandatory testing at the right time. However, the government needs to provide sufficient support in terms of manpower, patient management and logistics to ensure effectiveness. In terms of vaccination, apart from the aforementioned lack of health care workers to assist in vaccination, the vaccination rate of the public, especially the elderly, is still below expectation. How to solve these problems appropriately? Watch the video now for more of Dr. Leung's insights.