• Hong Kong becomes another Wuhan in its worst wave of Covid

Once upon a time, Hong Kong was on the short list of places that had best controlled the pandemic.

They quickly sealed their borders, just like mainland China.

For two years, copying Beijing's

Covid zero

strategy , the former British colony smoothly contained the first four waves of coronavirus.

Before 2022, its number of daily infections had never exceeded 200.

As of February 9, Hong Kong had gone five months without reporting any Covid deaths among its 7.5 million people

.

But the fifth wave came.

The one of omicron

.

The strongest of all.

Then everything fell apart.

The city was not ready.

Nobody expected that because of members of an air crew who skipped quarantine being positive, local transmission among the community would skyrocket to the 8,795 new cases reported last Thursday.

There are

50,000 infections in the last 14 days.

Hong Kong has now become the

global epicenter of omicron infections.

That has left old scenes that seemed forgotten: hospitals collapsed, patients bedridden on stretchers in health center parking lots, others isolated in tents, while thousands wait to enter quarantine facilities that are being opened as they go.

What is the most efficient solution that the authorities have sought to stop the outbreak?

Tests.

Many tests.

Perform PCR on the entire population.

Up to three mandatory rounds for each resident in a maximum period of 21 days.

They will start this week and will be scheduled by appointment based on the year of birth of the neighbors.

The local government has decided

to advance student vacations to March in order to use schools as mass testing centers.

They intend to do around a million PCRs every day following the "group test": in each analysis they combine the samples of at least 10 people who have undergone the tests.

If it comes out positive, a new analysis must be carried out, but this time retesting all the people to whom the samples taken corresponded and then analyze them individually.

Possible sanctions

As announced by the authorities,

residents who do not cooperate and do not join the tests will face fines,

and the disciplined services can track them through their identity card numbers.

Schools will also be used as vaccination posts.

68.3% of residents have the complete schedule of the vaccine.

But there is a lot of reluctance among older people.

According to official data, only 43% of those over 80 have received a dose.

And less than 15% of the adult population have received the booster dose.

From the School of Public Health of the University of Hong Kong they have warned that up to 7,000 people could die during this wave.

For a few days, there has been a new regulation approved that requires all people over 12 years of age to have been vaccinated at least once

to be able to enter different establishments such as restaurants, supermarkets or shopping centers.

Failure to comply can result in a fine of up to 10,000 Hong Kong dollars (1,133 euros).

overall closure

Schools, parks, gyms, bars and churches are closed.

Public gatherings of more than two people are prohibited.

Restaurants, where no more than two diners are allowed per table, lock down after 6:00 p.m., while many workers, especially civil servants, were ordered to work from home.

"

The fifth wave is an unprecedented challenge. I cannot answer if it will be contained within two or three months.

We probably have not yet seen the peak of this wave," said Carrie Lam, local chief executive.

During the last month, the accumulated cases have skyrocketed from 13,000 to 70,000 (this is the figure collected by the local media, because the authorities lower the total number of infections by almost 30,000 because they do not count asymptomatic cases), something unprecedented in a city that managed for months to keep daily infections below 100.

"If we don't have enough testing facilities, then we have to send the samples to the mainland," Lam warned.

The city government is working with the Chinese authorities to build a mega field hospital.

Several hotels have enabled 20,000 rooms for the new positives to be isolated.

Many newly built social housing units have also been opened to house around 3,000 people in quarantine.

From Beijing they have mobilized the best epidemiologists in the country to travel to Hong Kong and help the local government to stop the infections.

Conforms to The Trust Project criteria

Know more

  • Hong Kong

  • Coronavirus

  • covid 19

CoronavirusDoctors knew that the young Italian woman who died after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine had received the first dose

Apothecary GarciaCovid persistent: why are you still tired a month later?

CovidEnd of masks outdoors: where it is mandatory to wear a mask and what exceptions are there

See links of interest

  • Ukraine

  • Foster children Ukraine

  • Last News

  • Topics

  • Work calendar 2022

  • Time change

  • best colleges

  • Spezia - Rome

  • Leganes - Girona

  • Real Valladolid - Amorebieta

  • Royal Society - Osasuna

  • Lyon - Lille