‘Ensure children aren’t separated from parents’

A lawmaker on Tuesday called on the government to issue guidelines to ensure children infected with Covid-19 won’t be separated from their parents or caregivers.

The Hospital Authority has been criticised for separating sick children from their parents, who had not been allowed to stay in hospitals with them amidst a surge in coronavirus cases during the fifth wave.

Stephen Wong said children will be affected even if they are separated for a short period of time.

“For children, especially under three, they basically do not understand why their parents were taken away from them, and they would blame themselves.

“So, there are a lot of symptoms, for example, we have seen cases where the children, when they go back home…they basically have to hang on to their parents, especially their mum, constantly. The worst impact, for example, they decide to hurt themselves physically.”

Wong called on the authorities to disclose how many children were hospitalised during the fifth wave and how many were separated from their caregivers.

“There were estimated to be 1,000 to 2,000 children that had actually been through this during the fifth wave. Find them and know who they are, and then give mental health intervention to the children.

“A lot of things need to be done to minimise the long-lasting impact of these traumatic [experiences],” he added.

The lawmaker also said the prospect of families being separated had hurt Hong Kong’s international reputation, and that the Hospital Authority should have new guidelines for these types of situations.

He pointed out families should be viewed as “a single unit” to prevent separation in the event of a new wave of infections.

A chief manager with the Hospital Authority, Sara Ho, said on Monday that as the city’s coronavirus situation stabilises and the demand for hospital beds eases, parents who are not infected will now be allowed to accompany their infected children at hospitals.