8:30am-9:30am: growing fifth Covid-19 wave

8:30am-9:00am: Phone – Prof Malik Peiris, Chair of Virology at HKU School of Public Health 
8:30am-9:00am: Phone – Dr David Lam, lawmaker, Medical and health services sector 

9:00am-9:15am: Phone – Prof Ivan Hung, co-convenor of the Expert Committee on Clinical Events Assessment Following COVID-19 Immunisation or Clinical Professor, Department of Medicine, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, University of Hong Kong 

9:15am-9:30am: Phone – Dr Samuel Kwok, medical director of Kwun Chung vaccination centre 


On Monday’s Backchat, the growing fifth covid wave.
The Omicron cluster at Kwai Chung Estate has now expanded to 170 cases, with those in-fected spread across several buildings in the public housing estate.
Two of the blocks, Yat Kwai House and Ying Kwai House, are currently under a five-day lock-down with residents forced to stay home.
A top government adviser on the pandemic, Professor Yuen Kwok-yung warned that the “es-calating” fifth wave could take two to three months to contain, and easing social-distancing measures around the Lunar New Year holiday was impossible.
Meanwhile, another hamster, one of 77 surrendered by residents following a cull announced last week, has tested positive for the Delta covid variant. 
Questions have also been raised over covid transmission on public transportation, after health experts said last week that omicron could have possibly spread from one person to an-other in an MTR station within seconds.Let us know what you think. You can leave a message on our Facebook page, Backchat on RTHK Radio 3, email us at backchat@rthk.hk or just give us a call on 2338 8266.