The fifth wave of the epidemic started at the end of last year (March 19), and the cumulative number of confirmed cases exceeded 1.004 million.
For more than two months, due to the large number of patients but the severe shortage of quarantine and medical facilities, the SAR government had to allow patients with mild symptoms to be isolated at home and seek help from the hospital when there is an emergency.
Referring to the situation in Taiwan, Singapore, Europe and the United States, the guidelines for home isolation all include important information on monitoring blood oxygen levels with oximeters to determine physical conditions, but the SAR government has always been hanging on the back of the epidemic car until Monday (March 14th). ) only added the oximeter as a key tool in the "anti-epidemic supplies package", and the guidelines for uploading the special website were also quite simple, and when "Hong Kong 01" asked the Department of Health and the Hospital Authority where the guidelines were When the department was in charge, the two sides were even more at a loss, and asked reporters to inquire about the other side.
At present, the government-related anti-epidemic teams are exhausted, but the problems of bureaucracy, mediocrity, contempt for every life, and disregard for their own responsibilities exposed in the entire process of prevention and control failure are really necessary to improve.
When reporters asked the Department of Health and the Hospital Authority about the exact date of uploading the guidelines, both sides replied that they "don't know" and that the other party was responsible for the guidelines.
(Screenshot of the 2019 Coronavirus Special Website)
belated oximeter
After the Lunar New Year, the fifth wave of the epidemic was out of control, and the quarantine centers and medical facilities began to be overwhelmed. The SAR government first launched the "Stay Safe and Anti-epidemic" plan on February 8, allowing close contacts to be quarantined at home; however, shortly after the launch of the plan , the community began to break out of the epidemic, not to mention close contacts, and even most of the confirmed cases were not sent to hospitals and quarantine centers. Although the authorities did not make it clear, it was actually equivalent to expanding the "Stay Safe and Anti-epidemic" plan to The group of confirmed patients relies on the patients to observe their own physical conditions to judge whether they are serious or serious, and whether they need to be sent to the hospital for treatment.
It is undeniable that the SAR government does provide patients under home isolation such as the "Preliminary Confirmed or Confirmed Persons Manual for Hospitalization or Isolation Facility" and "Information Leaflet for Home Quarantine Persons", which all list health monitoring, but initially Among the various versions released, the definitions of mild and severe are not clear, for example, it simply states that "severe symptoms can include shortness of breath, palpitations, or heart and chest pain", "if you have a medical emergency, you must go directly to the emergency room" , "If you encounter an emergency, please call 999", but there is no clearer indicator, so it is no wonder that many patients are pouring into the emergency room.
More than a month has passed, and it was not until last Sunday (March 13) that the Secretary for Food and Health, Chen Zhaoshi, announced that from the next day, oximeters will be added to the "anti-epidemic material kits" distributed to confirmed patients to check Heart rhythm and blood oxygen levels; and the "Handbook for Preliminary Confirmed or Confirmed Persons Awaiting Admission to Hospitals or Isolation Facilities" updated on March 17 finally added "Use of a Pulse Oximeter at Home for People Who Test Positive for COVID-19" (Oximeter)" instructions for use.
Zeng Qiyin said that oximeters can help citizens to better understand the changes in their health status, and the percentage of blood oxygen content is a more objective criterion to help citizens make the next decision.
(Photo by Gao Zhongming)
Inexplicable instructions for use
In fact, at the beginning of the announcement of the home isolation plan, some experts suggested that patients should measure the percentage of oxygen in the body's blood with an oximeter every day to monitor whether they were hypoxic.
Zeng Qiyin, co-chairman of the Advisory Committee on Infectious Diseases of the Medical Association, pointed out that measuring blood oxygen is a routine inspection of hospitalized patients in hospitals. At present, a large number of confirmed patients are not admitted to the hospital. Therefore, experts will recommend this clinical practice to the public for their reference. .
He said frankly that oximeters can help citizens better understand the changes in their health status, and the percentage of blood oxygen content is a more objective criterion to help citizens make next-step decisions.
Under normal circumstances, patients with sleep apnea, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, pneumonia, lung cancer, heart failure, congenital heart disease, arrhythmia, etc., as well as people who climb mountains, need to use an oximeter to monitor the oxygen content in the blood. , and infection with influenza, new crowns and lung-related diseases may cause blood oxygen to drop, below 95% of the normal level, and severe cases can be fatal.
Symptoms of low blood oxygen include: blue face, lips or fingernails, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing or worsening cough, chest pain, fast heartbeat; however, not all people with low blood oxygen levels have difficulty breathing, so patients with confirmed Covid-19 need Regularly monitor blood oxygen levels with an oximeter in the morning and evening, especially for the elderly and children who have been diagnosed.
However, the SAR government's anti-epidemic arrangements are always "later aware", and because the news about oximeters in the market is faster than the government's action, the oximeters on the market have already been snapped up, leaving those who really need it. It was difficult for the public to obtain it; however, due to the lack of official information on the use of oximeters at the time, the citizens who obtained it were useless.
Later, even if the guidelines were announced, Hong Kong was obviously too rudimentary compared to Taiwan, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Taking the guidelines of New York City as an example, it explains in detail what an oximeter is, why it is important, how to understand the readings of the device, how to clean it, whether children should use it, etc. It also provides a blood oxygen content log for citizens to fill in. , so that the public can monitor their physical condition more clearly.
The Hong Kong guidelines only have seven precautions and two to three sentences explaining the oximeter, and the meaning of the blood oxygen level data is only one to two sentences.
It can be seen that there is considerable room for improvement in the Hong Kong government's anti-epidemic measures.
The anti-epidemic team remains on its own
It is worth mentioning that when the reporter of "New Crown 01" asked the Department of Health and the Hospital Authority, which are responsible for fighting the epidemic, which department was responsible for drafting and uploading the guidelines for oximeters, both sides were at a loss, and wrote The reporter asked the other side for inquiries.
The Department of Health also stated that different government departments can edit the new crown thematic website, so they will not know the upload details of individual documents; the HA stated that after a certain department wrote the guidelines, it consulted experts in the HA, but the bureau also I don't know which department "a department" is.
"Hong Kong 01" also inquired about the relevant situation with the Centre for Health Protection, but has not responded by the deadline.
In the current pandemic, the anti-epidemic teams are still acting independently and pushing each other's backs, which is really incredible.
Zeng Qiyin believes that the fifth wave of the epidemic is spreading rapidly, and the government has to deal with many affairs, so it may not be able to distribute oximeters and publish relevant guidelines in time.
He said that experts and scholars who closely monitor the epidemic are generally ahead of the government, so they have long since taught the public how to monitor their physical conditions through different media.
However, it is always the SAR government that should shoulder the main responsibility for fighting the epidemic. Once it relies too much on experts for public education, it may neglect various measures that need to be implemented immediately.