Press Releases

SFH on seasonal influenza

Following is the transcript of remarks made by the Secretary for Food and Health, Professor Sophia Chan, after attending a public function today (July 28):

Reporter: What is the latest situation of seasonal influenza? Why are there only eight patients sent to St Teresa Hospital?

Secretary for Food and Health: Actually, the situation in the past week has stabilised a little bit. The Accident and Emergency (A&E) attendance is just over 5 000 and below 6 000. If we look at the past two weeks, the A&E attendance has been over 6 000. Obviously, if we look at the bed occupancy of the medical wards, some of them are still over 100 per cent. We continue to hire more part-time staff and review the situation. As far as the bed situation of St Teresa Hospital is concerned, the Hospital Authority (HA) is looking for suitable patients. After getting their consent, HA will send the patients there. They will continue to monitor the situation.

Reporter: Has the flu season reached its peak?

Secretary for Food and Health: It is very difficult to say at this stage whether it has reached its peak. If we look at the A&E attendance, it has gone down a little bit and has stabilised. But according to the Centre for Health Protection, we are still in the peak season.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)

Ends/Friday, July 28, 2017
Issued at HKT 18:20
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