HONG KONG - Public hospital doctors will be able to check patients' history of travel outside the city through an e-platform within this week, Hong Kong's Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor announced Tuesday.

The measure will help doctors counter a general tendency among patients to suppress health information, especially with infections from the novel coronavirus currently raging in the city.

Speaking to reporters before the customary Executive Council meeting, Lam also appealed to medical personnel on strike to return to work as the struggle faced by public hospitals to provide emergency services had created "a worrying" situation.

The hardest hit are the neo-natal intentive care unit for new-born infants, radiation oncology department, isolation and cancer wards, the CE said.

The Hospital Authority, in charge of all public hospitals, said Tuesday morning that a large number of medical personnel remained absent from duty and called on patients with minor symptoms to seek out doctors with private practices.

Lam also said that food supplies to the city remained stable as the near-total border shutdown will not affect freight movement.

In view of the city-wide shortage of surgical masks, Lam said the government had issued directives that save medical and elderly care staff, other civil servants are not allowed to wear masks unless they are ill, offering front-line service or in crowded places.

Lam stressed that the top priority for now was to further control cross-boundary flow of people, especially of Hong Kong residents who comprised the largest group of people currently making cross-border trips. If the number of such trips does not come down significantly, more specific measures will be adopted, Lam said.