The HK government has refused to set up an independent commission to investigate the success and failure of the fight against COVID-19

As China and Hong Kong turned to co-existing with the virus to deal with the Wuhan pneumonia, there were voices in Hong Kong calling for the Hong Kong government to set up an independent investigation committee to review its epidemic prevention policies in case of the next pandemic.

However, Chief Executive Li Ka-chiu said that he did not agree to set up an independent investigation committee to investigate the situation, stressing that the government will continue to learn from the experience and optimize measures to deal with future threats. Political scientist CAI Tsz-keung said the government resisted setting up an independent inquiry committee because it did not want the investigation to affect the leadership of the administration or find out embarrassing facts for the government.

The daily number of new infections in Hong Kong has dropped to 3,172 over the past three days, bringing the total number of cases to 28.75 million and the death toll to 13,333, according to government figures. Yuen Kwok-yung, the government’s expert adviser, said earlier that the pandemic was certain to recur in the future. He suggested that the Government set up a special committee, similar to the one set up after sars 20 years ago, to review the adequacy of the way it handled the epidemic in hospitals, case tracking and isolation facilities.

In the 2003 SARS outbreak, 1,755 people were diagnosed in Hong Kong and 299 died, making it the second worst outbreak after China. A special committee was set up to review the handling of the outbreak. In June 2004, the Centre for Health Protection was established under the Department of Health as recommended. The Centre played a coordinating role in former Chief Executive Carrie Lam’s response to the Wuhan pneumonia outbreak.

However, in the face of the death toll of this outbreak, 45 times that of SARS, the Hong Kong government has rejected it as if it were facing the anti-revision campaign in 2019. After at least four members of the Hong Kong Executive Council, who are just like the British cabinet, expressed their disapproval of the establishment of an independent inquiry committee, the Chief Executive, Mr Li Ka-chiu, also expressed his disapproval of the establishment of an independent inquiry committee to investigate the Hong Kong government’s anti-epidemic work before the Executive Council held this morning (30th). He stressed that the current government should constantly sum up experience and optimize measures with the attitude of “open the road to the hill and build Bridges to the water”. Is a pragmatic and effective approach.

He pointed out that the three-year epidemic had killed 6.7 million people worldwide, and that the death rate per population in the US and the UK was 1.8 times and 1.6 times higher than that in Hong Kong. The epidemic was changing rapidly, and local governments were adapting to the situation without any accepted best or standard plan. Hong Kong has also been learning from its experience, including the establishment of a new command structure and tiered management of the outbreak.