HKSAR government's top priority is to focus resources on COVID-19 patients most in need: Carrie Lam

HONG KONG, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Carrie Lam on Friday said that the current priority for the government was to focus resources on COVID-19 patients most in need, prevent mild cases from turning severe, and reduce the number of severe cases and deaths.

Lam made the remarks during a meeting on Friday with the mainland medical expert team led by Liang Wannian, head of the COVID-19 response expert panel under China's National Health Commission.

Lam said that the Hospital Authority had been gradually converting beds in suitable hospitals in its different clusters for admitting confirmed COVID-19 patients, so as to focus healthcare manpower and resources on coping with the confirmed cases on the rise.

The government was also pressing ahead with vaccination arrangements for residents in residential care homes for elderly and disabled persons, mobilizing more medical workers in both the public and private sectors to form outreach medical teams and aiming to complete the outreach vaccination exercise within two weeks' time, Lam added.

"The ceaseless support from the country is testimony to the care of the central authorities and the institutional strength of 'one country, two systems' and has boosted our anti-epidemic efforts," Lam said, expressing her heartfelt gratitude to the three mainland medical expert teams which came to Hong Kong thus far.

"As long as members of the public stay confident and united, we can soon overcome the epidemic," she added.