The onslaught of the highly contagious Omicron variant caused the number of infections to skyrocket, "dealt a heavy blow to Hong Kong and overwhelmed the city's management capacity," Lam said.

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 huge 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 centres,” Ms. Lam said, adding that the government “will spare no effort to put in place implement" the current "zero Covid" strategy.

Since the start of the pandemic, Hong Kong has adhered to mainland China's "zero Covid" policy of 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.

Last week, the city recorded its first deaths in five months.

About 50% of Hong Kong's population over the age of 70 is unvaccinated.

On Friday, researchers warned that by the end of March, the city could have up to 28,000 daily infections.

While since the start of the pandemic, Hong Kong has recorded a cumulative total of only 16,719 infections and 219 deaths.

© 2022 AFP