HA reserves 5,000 beds for Covid patients
Health officials have announced they are mobilising up to 5,000 beds for Covid patients, as the daily caseload climbed to 6,654. Tuesday saw 6,410 new local Covid infections and 244 imported cases. More than 2,100 patients with the coronavirus were being treated in hospitals, including 11 who were receiving intensive care. There were 10 more Covid-related deaths. Dr Larry Lee, a chief manager with the Hospital Authority, said more than 10 Covid patients had been transferred to the AsiaWorld-Expo treatment centre, and more would be sent to the newly reopened facility shortly. He said the authority had decided to reserve up to 5,000 beds at different hospitals and facilities for patients confirmed with Covid. Lee noted that around one-fifth of non-emergency services were being affected as the authority deployed more resources to tend to Covid patients. "The public hospitals have to pay a high price now to treat these patients. It is done at the expense of other services, for example, we need to deploy staff to these facilities and that's not an easy task," he said. "Many hospitals have already reduced non-emergency surgery procedures and other day treatment, and we will have to further cut down on other non-emergency services soon, because we will need more resources to take care of Covid patients." He called on people not to let their guard down, saying the whole community would pay a high price if the Covid situation worsened.