XE variant no reason to worry: David Hui

Government pandemic advisor David Hui on Saturday played down concerns about the latest version of the Omicron Covid variant, a combination of two earlier strains known as XE.

Hui made the comment after officials confirmed on Friday that two people who arrived in Hong Kong in February had a combination of the BA1 and BA2 Omicron strains.

XE also combines the two strains, but the Chinese University academic said the strain found in the two imported cases was not “exactly” the same thing.

“The two cases that came through Germany and the Netherlands to Hong Kong in February, the genome sequencing [shows] it is not exactly XE,” he said. “And those two cases were detected on arrival and during hotel quarantine and did not leak into the community, so there’s no cause for alarm.

“Even for XE itself, the WHO actually published a document just a few days ago saying it is not actually a cause for concern at this stage. We’re just watching the developments.”

Hui added that there was no reason to believe XE infections would be especially serious.

Speaking on a radio show on Saturday, Hui also said government experts would meet next week to discuss arrangements for the fourth vaccine dose.

He believes the booster will first be made available to elderly residents, and people can get the fourth jab three to six months after the third.

On Saturday morning, the government has also started giving out anti-Covid packs, with the hope of providing them to all households within a week.

Authorities said grassroots families will be the first to receive the packs, which contain rapid test kits, face masks and traditional Chinese medicine.

Ahead of an announcement by Chief Executive Carrie Lam on an exercise encouraging the public to test with rapid at-home kits next week, Hui said use of the at-home tests could help prepare for a more formal mass-testing exercise.

“If you can introduce the rapid antigen test as the first round to screen out the positive cases, that would facilitate the subsequent second round, perhaps using PCR [tests]. So that may be the case, but I think it would require more discussion within the government,” Hui said.