Hong Kong health authorities predict that next week the Concrete Country will enter the peak of the winter flu disease. The indications are the number of people hospitalized due to this disease as well as the number of severe cases that have recently occurred.
"The latest influenza indicators show that we are about to enter the winter influenza season because one of the main indicators has exceeded the threshold and other indicators are approaching the threshold," said Chuang Shuk-kwan from the Center for Health Protection, as reported by RTHK.
Typically, the duration of influenza seasons in the past may have been 8 weeks or 12 weeks, sometimes longer. "So it is difficult to anticipate or predict with certainty the duration of the influenza season and its severity," said Chuang Shuk-kwan.
Hong Kong health officials said more than 1,7 million people had received the latest flu shots as of Monday. Although the number of children and elderly people getting vaccinated is higher than last year, half of the population is still unprotected.
Meanwhile, the Hospital Authority said the occupancy rate of inpatient beds in the medical and pediatric departments of acute hospitals reached 116 percent and 92 percent respectively on Wednesday. “We are currently under pressure. But we actually have experience in handling that pressure,” said the authority's chief manager Larry Lee.
“We experienced a two-fold spike in service requests last year, in the middle of the year, and also in October. We must follow our basic response plan. We monitor various parameters, including influenza numbers, Covid, and also the bed situation. "We have also announced different measures to try to improve turnover rates, efficiency and workforce in our hospitals," said Larry Lee.
