News

HKU on Coronavirus (Aug 10-24)

2020-09-01

HKU in the news (Aug 10-Aug 24)

Aug 24 HKU microbiologist Dr Ho Pak-leung decides not to be tested under the mass testing offered by the government and predicts about 40 infected spreaders can be identified if 3 millions HK citizens join the mass testing (Professor Ho Pak-leung) (link)

Aug 24 HKU researchers use genomic sequence analysis to prove immunity to the virus could last only a few months after the 33-year-old had a second case of Covid-19 infection which was diagnosed 4.5 months after the first episode (Professor Kelvin To) (link)

Aug 21 HKU microbiologist Dr Ho Pak-leung likens mass testing to 'wasting bullets' and the government should plug loopholes in its anti-epidemic work and allocate more resources to repeat testing in high-risk areas, such as eateries, supermarkets, elderly homes staff, and public hospital patients (Professor Ho Pak-leung) (link)

Aug 20 HKU microbiologist Dr Ho Pak-leung points out everyone who died in the latest wave of infections were aged 60 or above and for those older than 80, the fatality rate is 25 percent (Professor Ho Pak-leung) (link)

Aug 18 HKU epidemiologist Benjamin Cowing thinks virus spread via contaminated food packaging is not a frequent mode of transmission as it involves too many steps even though viruses can survive being frozen (Professor Benjamin Cowling) (link)

Aug 18 HKU team develops new treatment to effectively suppress coronaviruses (link)

Aug 18 HKU microbiologist Professor Yuen kwok-yung thinks it is very likely the outbreak at Kwai Tsing Container Terminals was also caused by contact between port workers and crew members (Professor Yuen Kwok-yun) (link)

Aug 18 HKU virologist thinks health code is not a effective way to control the virus spread due to accuracy and transparency (Professor Jin Dongyan) (link)

Aug 18 HKU study led by microbiologist Professor Yuen kwok-yung identifies a chemical ACA which can suppress viral replication of COVID-19 (Professor Yuen Kwok-yun) (link)

Aug 17 HKU Dean of Medicine warns that latest study on Octopus data shows a recent increase in the number of people going out which means the infectivity rate of the coronavirus is poised to also rise within the next few days  (Professor Gabriel Leung) (link)

Aug 17 HKU epidemiologist thinks contact-tracing is a much more efficient method to find coronavirus infected patients, rather than trying to test everyone in Hong Kong (Professor Benjamin Cowling) (link)

Aug 15 HKU Professor Leo Poon says that at room temperature the virus can survive on a surface for several days, but at 4C (39.2F) it can last up to two weeks (Professor Leo Poon) (link)