21st July 2021 – (Hong Kong) A 13-year-old girl and her 11-year-old brother who arrived in Hong Kong from Saudi Arabia were confirmed to be preliminary COVID-19 variany cases during the home quarantine at Tang Kung Mansion in Taikoo Shing last Saturday (17th). It was said that the siblings were diagnosed with L452R variants and they are the children of Saudi Arabia consul.
Ho Pak Leung, head of the Infection and Infectious Diseases Centre of the University of Hong Kong, said on a radio program this morning (21st) that the virus does not discriminate and it will also spread to consulates, presidents, and prime ministers. It is recommended that privileged people who arrive in Hong Kong from high-risk areas should undergo closed-loop management, including special traffic arrangements to avoid bringing the virus into the community.
He also pointed out that in principle, he does not approve of allowing privileged persons to conduct home quarantine in high-density residential buildings. He emphasised that many countries or regions that implement home quarantine can easily allow the virus to enter the community and cause large-scale outbreaks. Therefore, he believes that if the vaccination rate in Hong Kong is not up to the standard, home quarantine should be avoided as much as possible.
Regarding the vaccination rate in Hong Kong, he pointed out that based on the current vaccination progress, 70% of people may receive at least one dose and less than half of them will receive two doses by the end of September. He warned that if the Hong Kong government relaxes epidemic prevention measures prematurely, outbreak will still occur.
He took the situation in Singapore as an example. He said that after the local area reached a similar vaccination rate, it immediately relaxed its epidemic prevention measures, but the epidemic rebounded sharply. Yesterday (20th), there was nearly 200 confirmed cases reported in Singapore.
Ho pointed out that if every confirmed person will infect 3 people and the vaccine effective rate is 90%, 74% of the population in Hong Kong will need to be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity. However, under the threat of the mutant virus, the effectiveness of the vaccine has weakened and the spread of the virus has increased. Therefore, each patient may infect 6 people. The vaccination rate must reach 84% to 93% to reach the minimum herd immunity level, which means about 7.4 million people in Hong Kong. Among the population, 6 million people must be vaccinated with 2 doses.
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