Winter flu season; technology to boost efficiency of hybrid rice production; World Cup 2022

8:30am-9:15am: Winter flu

8:30am-8:45am: Dr Michael Wong, Hospital Authority Chief Manager (Cluster Performance)

8:45am-9:15am: Dr Vijaykrishna (Vijay) Dhanasekaran, Associate Professor, Division of Public Health Laboratory Sciences, HKU’s School of Public Health

9:00am-9:15am: Dr Surya Paudel, Assistant Professor (Poultry) at the Department of Infec-tious Diseases and Public Health, City University of Hong Kong

9:15am-9:25am: rice

9:15am-9:25am: Professor Zhang Jianhua, Chair Professor of the Department of Biology at HKBU

9:25am-9:30am: World Cup 2022

9:25am-9:30am: Atom Cheung, RTHK sports reporter

On Friday's Backchat, we're talking about the upcoming winter flu season, and concerns about a possible ‘twindemic’ in the coming weeks.

Local health authorities are bracing for an increase in cases of ordinary flu — with the population now less immune and more susceptible to a serious outbreak after two years without a winter flu surge.

And with Covid-19 figures remaining at around 10,000 per day, public hospitals have been given HK$790 million in extra funding to pay for more beds and manpower to deal with a possible rise in the number of patients.

So how big of a risk are we facing? Is the healthcare system ready for a possible ‘twindemic’?

After 9.15am, we hear about a new technique developed by local scientists to increase the efficiency of hybrid rice production

And at 9.25am, we'll be joined by RTHK sports correspondent Atom Cheung with the latest on the World Cup.