A wave of infections with the Omicron variant of Covid-19 in Hong Kong has brought a “hard blow“to the city’s health system, which clings to its strategy”zero-Covid“, said Sunday evening the head of government Carrie Lam.
The onslaught of the highly contagious Omicron variant caused the number of contaminations to explode, “dealt a blow to Hong Kong and overwhelmed the city’s management capacity“Carrie Lam acknowledged.
Overcrowded care system
Hong Kong’s policy of hospitalizing any infected person, even asymptomatic, or isolating them in a quarantine center has resulted in overcrowding of the healthcare system and interminable waiting times. As a result, hospitals have asked patients with few or no symptoms to stay at home while waiting for places to become available.
“The considerable increase in the number of confirmed cases in recent days has lengthened the time it takes for people who test positive to be admitted to isolation centers“said Carrie Lam, adding that the government”will spare no effort to implement work“the current strategy of”zero covid“.
“Zero covid” policy
Since the start of the pandemic, Hong Kong has adhered to the policy “zero covidfrom mainland China, which involves eradicating any outflow of infection through widespread testing, mass quarantines and extended social distancing measures.
But the appearance of Omicron on the territory at the end of December led to more than 8,300 new cases in just a few weeks, a considerable jump from the approximately 12,000 cases detected in almost two years.
Carrie Lam added that mainland China would help the city with its testing and quarantine efforts.
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