With Hong Kong continuing to report thousands of new COVID-19 cases that have overwhelmed its hospitals, Chinese President Xi Jinping has called on the Hong Kong government “to take all necessary measures” to bring the outbreak under control.
With hospitals overflowing and more than 12,000 patients still awaiting admission, the Chinese Special Administrative Region (SAR) has continued to report a record number of cases.
Hospitals have been forced to put up beds for elderly patients outdoors as they reached their full capacity. More than 7,000 cases were reported on Wednesday. Total confirmed cases in the current wave, since early January, are nearing 20,000 and will soon double the total number of cases recorded since the pandemic began. There were nine deaths in the last 24 hours including of a three year old girl.
Last week saw Hong Kong’s first COVID-19 related death in more than six months, and the current wave has claimed 22 lives. Hong Kong has recorded a total of 234 deaths since the pandemic began, among the lowest in any major city in the world.
Hong Kong had largely been able to avoid a major second wave unlike most of the world with its stringent “zero COVID” strategy and curbs on international travel, until the current Omicron surge that has overwhelmed the city. There are now fears of more deaths in coming days particularly because of the very low vaccination rates among the elderly, especially the above-80 population, with many choosing to not get vaccinated because there were so few COVID-19 cases in the past two years.
Mr. Xi said the SAR government “must take the main responsibility”, “mobilise all forces and resources that can be mobilised”, and “stabilise the situation as soon as possible”, the South China Morning Post quoted reports in two state-affiliated Chinese newspapers as saying. The central government will set up a work mechanism to offer support including to boost testing capacity.
While Singapore had, like Hong Kong, followed a stringent approach, it has since loosened restrictions having vaccinated and boosted a greater number of its population.
Hong Kong, similar to the mainland, is still following a “zero COVID” approach, which requires mass testing, isolating cases in quarantine, and targeted lockdowns to bring cases to zero. While Hong Kong hasn’t yet announced an overall lockdown, with Mr. Xi’s directive on Wednesday, signs are the SAR will face difficult weeks ahead as it continues to battle the surge while still continuing to remain isolated from the rest of the world.
