Health chief declines to predict peak as ‘it is meaningless’

Health Bureau (SSM) director and pulmonologist Alvis Lo refused to forecast the peak of this outbreak of Covid-19, saying that to do so would be meaninglessness.

He was asked over the weekend whether this outbreak is at its peak or will be soon. He was also asked when he expected the peak if not soon.

In response, the pulmonologist said he never makes predictions because they are not meaningful.

Elaborating, the health chief added that the health agency would constantly monitor the progress of the outbreak, while analyzing and assessing the efficacy of each measure.

Based on the results, the agency will decide future strategies to achieve dynamic zero-Covid.

He also attributed the falling trajectory of new cases in the past few days to the city’s rounds of intense mass SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid tests, banning dine-in services, as well as stopping public services and open-door financial operations.

Reiterating the transmissibility of the current BA.5 variant of the virus, he stressed that measures must be constantly adjusted to win against the virus.

The pulmonologist’s refusal to make predictions may be due to Chinese respiratory medicine professional Zhong Nanshan’s forecasting. Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng has disclosed that Zhong is making models for Macau based on SSM’s data.

Foreign epidemiologists and virologists have warned that efforts to confine the spread of the Omicron variant is futile due to its high transmissibility and mild to no symptoms. AL