Hong Kong to shorten Covid-19 hospital stays with testing change

tests that show they are no longer infectious, as determined by a cycle threshold or CT count of 33 or higher, Hospital Authority Chief Manager Lau Ka-hin said at a daily briefing on Wednesday , a lower standard than the current rules.

The previous strict standards, designed to ensure no one was released when they could potentially spread the virus, kept some people with no symptoms hospitalised for weeks. Once released, patients will be able to complete a 14-day isolation and recovery period at home, rather than in a government-run facility, Dr Lau said.

The change could allow patients to get out of the hospital five days to a week faster than it currently takes, Dr David Hui, a professor of respiratory medicine at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and a member of the city's Covid-19 advisory panel, told the South China Morning Post . The new testing requirements will take a few days to implement, Dr Lau said. The change may allow patients to be discharged after 10 to 12 days, instead of the average hospital stay of 17 days now, Dr Hui told the SCMP.

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