Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor (center) speaks at her daily pandemic press briefing on Thursday. She is flanked by the Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee (left) and the Chief Executive of the Hospital Authority Tony Ko Pat-sing, at the Central Government Offices. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said on Thursday that the government will undertake a review of the current anti-pandemic measures and may announce a series of new arrangements on Sunday or Monday.

Lam’s announcement at her daily news conference comes as the omicron outbreak continues to ravage the city.

The new arrangements may involve border controls, flight bans, quarantine measures, compulsory mass testing, face-to-face classroom arrangements, and social-distancing rules, she said.

Lam said she has “a strong feeling” that public tolerance of the stringent anti-pandemic measures has begun to fade, with some financial institutions starting to lose patience.

“Hong Kong is an international financial center. No one cares about its status under the ‘one country, two systems’ principle more than I,” she said.

The special administrative region government had previously announced that many of the current antivirus measures would be in place until April 20.

Lam also dismissed online rumors that the city’s mass testing program will begin on March 26. The government is still making detailed plans on the issue, she said.

Her remarks came after Xia Baolong, a vice-chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and the director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council, presided over the ninth anti-pandemic coordination meeting in Shenzhen on Wednesday. Xia said the pandemic situation in Hong Kong remains serious, and the Chinese-mainland task force that has come to the city’s aid still faces mounting challenges. The Hong Kong government should give full play to the role of medical teams from the mainland, increase the occupancy rate of isolation facilities, speed up the distribution of anti-pandemic supplies, and take full advantage of traditional Chinese medicine in the treatment of COVID-19, he said.

The central government has been assisting Hong Kong with manpower, anti-virus necessities and medicines since February. A total of 375 medical workers from Guangdong province have arrived in Hong Kong this week to help treat infected patients, especially the elderly and those critically ill.

On Thursday, a new isolation facility at Hung Shui Kiu, the fifth of the nine built with the help from the central government, was handed over to the Hong Kong government and put into use.

The facility will serve two functions — as an isolation facility that provides approximately 550 rooms and 1,600 beds, and as a temporary holding center for older adults.

The coronavirus has already spread to over 750 nursing homes, accounting for around 90 percent of the total number of cases.

Three microbiologists from the University of Hong Kong, including government adviser Yuen Kwok-yung, said on Thursday that limited isolation facilities should be set aside for those in urgent need, such as older adults, children and those with chronic diseases, rather than for COVID-19 patients with mild symptoms.

Hong Kong recorded 21,650 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, including 13,022 detected through rapid antigen tests.

tianyuanzhang@chinadailyhk.com