CE starts mainland trip to help virus-battered economy

HONG KONG - Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor starts her five-day trip to meet Chinese mainland officials today, as the special administrative region’s health secretary renewed calls for caution over the novel coronavirus after partygoers swarmed nightlife spots on Halloween.

Lam will meet authorities in the capital Beijing and the Guangdong cities of Guangzhou and Shenzhen to find ways of reviving Hong Kong’s pandemic-battered economy, the SAR government said in a statement on Monday.

Their discussions will also cover ways to facilitate the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and to foster deeper Hong Kong-Shenzhen cooperation, the statement read.

Hong Kong is still battling its third wave of COVID-19 outbreak that started in July. Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee said on Monday she’s “very worried” about lingering risks after the city reported three local infections. The three patients linked to a staycation at a Mui Wo hotel were among the six new cases recorded on Monday, which raised the city’s caseload to 5,337.

Speaking on a public radio program, Chan said the government will consider toughening social-distancing measures if frequent violations are reported like those that happened over the weekend, when partygoers celebrating Halloween swarmed nightlife areas, some of them breaching the four-diners-per-table limit at bars and pubs.

“Winter is coming. We have to fend off a possible fourth wave of outbreak,” she said. Over the past month, there have been 14 days when the city faced COVID-19 infections from unknown sources.

Lo Chung-mau, chief executive of the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital in Shenzhen, said there are no “shortcuts” for Hong Kong to reboot its economy, but to make the new cases “down to zero”.

Lo said during a radio program on Sunday that the mainland has set a good example for Hong Kong in combating the pandemic. “Whenever there is a small-scale outbreak within the community, the local authorities and all residents will collaborate to tackle the disease,” said Lo, who suggested compulsory virus testing for suspected patients.

To cut off the invisible transmission chain in the community, Hong Kong is set to launch contact-tracing app Leave Home Safe in a few weeks. The app will calculate the risk of contracting COVID-19, and send users notifications if they visit places that COVID-19 patients have been to.