Speaking on a radio program Saturday, Lo expressed his disappointment that the seven doctors issued the exemptions without running proper assessments for citizens.

Some issued the exemptions when they were not in Hong Kong, while others issued around 48 exemptions every hour on average, according to Lo.

“As a doctor, not only am I disappointed, I also think it is a great humiliation to the healthcare sector,” Lo said.

“The earliest case was detected in March. Back then, we suspected the doctor because he issued the exemptions when he was not in Hong Kong. This example clearly indicated many doctors did not perform proper clinical assessments.”

The health chief noted there were about 20,000 exemptions issued by the seven doctors, and some 18,000 remain valid to this date. Twenty-six patients were arrested on suspicion of collecting the exemptions illegally, and 804 patients have properly re-collected their exemptions.

Lo continued that 2,042 citizens who collected the suspected fraudulent exemptions have also received the Covid shots, saying this is proof that citizens don't really have reasons to refuse the vaccine shots.

Lo added that turning these citizens into low-risk individuals via vaccination is also why the government invalidated the exemptions.

Lo also warned that the death rate for the unvaccinated after Covid infection is 10 times higher than that of the vaccinated and said the seven doctors significantly harmed the patients.

He said Hong Kong cannot let down its guard and ease all Covid curbs at once, as he stressed Covid is not just the flu.

“Many people believe the pandemic has passed and say 'Covid is not a big deal, it's just the flu'; I definitely disagree with treating Covid as flu in this stage.”