The Department of Health (DH) and the Hospital Authority (HA) held a press conference on the fifth wave of the outbreak in Hong Kong this afternoon (April 2). According to Dr. Chuang Shuk-kwan of the Centre for Health Protection, the recombinant variant identified so far poses little threat to HK for the time being.
Chuang said that there are many different kinds of combinations of the BA.1 and BA.2 Omicron strains and "XE" found in the UK is only one of them, which is different from the virus variant found in Hong Kong, so it is not exactly XE.
She said that, according to experts, so far the imported combined strain has not leaked into the community, so it does not have much threat to HK for the time being.
She also said that now that the ban on flights has been lifted, which leads to imported cases, the government will closely monitor the relevant situation.
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