The synonym for the epidemic

COVID-19 430 Press Briefing Team
Hospital Authority Head Office

“In the past 24 hours, the number of newly confirmed patients admitted to public hospitals is…” That is a form of words you may be very familiar with. Throughout the epidemic, from Monday to Sunday at 4:30pm, spokespersons for the Hospital Authority (HA) would attend press briefings to give the latest situation in Hong Kong’s public hospitals. The Team members involved had different duties but shared the same goal – to help the people of Hong Kong understand the development of the epidemic.

The briefings continued for almost three years from the first 430 on 26 January 2020 to the final daily 430 on 24 September 2022, before converting to a weekly basis. In front of the cameras, a spokesperson directly addressed reporters while, behind the scenes, the Corporate Communication Department, Head Office Major Incident Control Centre, Chief Infection Control Officer Office and Statistics & Data Science Department provided support, pulling together the information on emergency measures as well as analysing the data.

Pressure mounted during the fifth wave of the epidemic when accident and emergency departments were full of patients waiting for admission. One of the patients talked to the press, “have we been forgotten?” The Team responded through the spokesperson. “We have not forgotten any patients. We are trying our very best to render support to them.” A patient then said he understood HA’s constraints.

“While data reporting was important, however, we wanted the public to understand our latest arrangements, and we wanted them to know we were doing all we could to respond to their needs.” The press briefing acted as a communication platform for HA and the members of the public.

With rapid changes in the epidemic situation and only a short period of time to prepare for the daily briefing, the Team once found the data was not ready due to massive quantity of data being processed as the press briefing began. The colleague at the scene called and verified the data with his colleague in the office who then texted the data through line by line. Team members also texted the spokespersons immediately in case there was any update on the situation. “We were like delivering breaking news on the spot,” one Team member joked, although the incident demonstrated the team’s spirit of flexibility and cooperation.

Team List