Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam has said that a “comprehensive review” into the public health crisis caused by the fifth-wave Covid-19 outbreak was warranted. However, she said her government “should not distract itself” at the moment and she believed the next administration would handle any probe or investigation “diligently.”
During Sunday’s Covid-19 press briefing, Lam was asked who would be held responsible for the loss of lives and whether she would admit there were mistakes in her Covid approach and if she would apologise to the affected families. The city’s Covid-19 death toll surpassed 7,000 over the weekend.
In response, Lam said Hong Kong had “successfully” contained the Omicron strain when the first locally transmitted case emerged but “unfortunately” cross-infection occurred at a quarantine hotel and the virus entered the community.
“These were not man-made mistakes,” said Lam. “In a public health crisis, sometimes it is impossible to completely avoid these sort of factors.”
When a HKEJ reporter asked whether the government would invite independent experts or judges to review its Covid-19 policies, Lam said although she believed a thorough review was warranted, it should not be done immediately.
“Now [we] are still not completely confident that we could walk out of the outbreak in the short term,” Lam said. “As the current chief executive, I don’t think at the moment, [we] should distract ourselves and deal with a large-scale investigation.”
She added that she “believed the next administration would handle [any probe] diligently” and she would be “happy” to provide opinions if required as she was mainly responsible for the current battle against the pandemic.
In addition, the chief executive said everyone in the city, including herself and her team, was “very saddened” by the number of deaths and expressed “deep condolences” to the family members of those who passed.
On Sunday, Hong Kong reported 8,037 new Covid-19 cases and 151 deaths, bringing the total infection count to 1,128,507 and death toll to 7,252.
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