Hong Kong Financial Secretary (FS) Paul Chan was listed as a COVID-19 “recovered case” after returning to Hong Kong from an overseas trip. As such, he did not require isolation and immediately attended the Global Financial Leaders’ Investment Summit. However, after the summit, the Hong Kong Government (HKgov) announced that Chan had tested positive. However, the government didn’t announce Chan’s cycle threshold (Ct) value and refused to respond to inquiries.
When testing for the presence of a virus, amplification cycles are used to increase the amount of viral RNA in the sample to a detectable level. This is called the cycle threshold or Ct value. When there is more RNA present to begin with, fewer cycles are required to reach the detection threshold. Thus, the Ct value is the cut-off that calls a test positive. This ensures that the PCR test is detecting the virus and is not a false positive.
Ct values cannot determine the infectivity of an individual nor the degree or duration of infectiousness.
The Red Code issued by HKgov is applicable to all confirmed COVID-19 cases, indicating the person is not allowed to leave the isolation location so they will not infect others. However, according to the Department of Health (DH) records, from Sept . 26 to Nov. 1, a total of 455 inbound travelers, who declared a previous COVID-19 infection within three months before they arrived in Hong Kong, tested PCR-positive upon arrival and were asymptomatic with relatively high Ct values. They were regarded as recovered cases and not contagious.
At noon on Oct. 27, a spokesman for the FS Office said that Chan, who was visiting Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, had a positive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test. On the afternoon of Oct. 31, the government announced that Chan’s PCR test was negative, and he was expected to arrive in Hong Kong on the afternoon of Nov. 1.
At 10:22 p.m. on Nov. 1, the government issued a press release stating that Chan was a recovered case, was not contagious, and isolation was not required. It also announced that Chan would attend the Global Financial Leaders’ Investment Summit, but would not participate in meals. However, the press release did not indicate whether Chan’s test result was positive or negative.
Late Night Press Release Says Chan’s Test Was Positive
The government did not report the test results until 11:28 p.m. on Nov. 2, after the summit ended, when it issued a press release claiming that after Chan arrived in Hong Kong on Nov. 1, he tested PCR positive with a Ct value that was within the range of the recovered cases, and he had no symptoms, a negative result was obtained before he boarded the plane, so the DH evaluated that Chan was a recovered case, and isolation was not required, nor was a “red code” assigned.At the government’s press conference on the pandemic on Nov. 3, Dr Edwin Tsui Lok-kin, Controller, Centre for Health Protection, was asked about Chan’s situation, the definition of asymptomatic, and the Ct value that means a person is exempt from isolation. Tsui responded that he would not comment on individual cases, nor would he provide relevant Ct values.
‘An Embarrassing Hong Kong Story’
Chris Yeung Kin-hing, the chief writer of CitizenNews and founder and editor of the Voice of Hong Kong, described Chan’s incident as a “suspense story,” “public relations disaster,” and an “embarrassing Hong Kong story” on his YouTube channel News Comment. The PCR test results at the Hong Kong airport were unclear, causing the public to question whether Chan’s test results were evaluated using a different set of standards.As for the government’s claim that 455 inbound travellers in the past two months had similar conditions and no isolation was required, Yeung said that since the government had never disclosed such cases and figures to the public before, what was the reason for announcing that information now? He believes that the government did not give a clear account of Paul Chan’s test results at an early stage, making the public feel that the government intended to hide his condition, and that Chan would “have no way to prove his innocence.” He added, “What are the officials thinking? It’s not something we can understand.”
