Hong Kong shortens Covid hospital stays with testing change

HONG KONG (Bloomberg): Hong Kong is accelerating the release of Covid-19 patients from the hospital as the city grapples with a growing number of infections that are taxing its health care facilities.

Patients will soon be discharged if they have two negative tests at least 24 hours apart or three 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 (Feb 2). That is a lower standard than the current rules, which have pushed the average hospital stay to 17 days, he said.