#16,576
Although South Korea is chalking up higher per capita numbers (90K+ today), Hong Kong's highly vaunted `Zero-COVID' policy is coming apart at the seams - with more than 4,200 new cases reported today - and marching orders issued by China's President Xi Jinping telling HK officials to get control of the situation.
First, a translated passage from the pro-Beijing news outlet Wen Wei Po, quoting the Chinese President.
At the time of crisis when the fifth wave of the epidemic in Hong Kong continued to expand, General Secretary Xi Jinping made important instructions and entrusted Vice Premier Han Zheng to convey his high attention and cordial care.
The general secretary put forward "three all" and "two guarantees" for Hong Kong's anti-epidemic requirements: the SAR government should make the stabilization and control of the epidemic "the overriding task at present", "mobilize all the forces and resources that can be mobilized", " Take all necessary measures" to ensure the safety and health of Hong Kong citizens and the overall stability of Hong Kong society.
This is the highest mobilization order of the central government for Hong Kong to fight the epidemic, and it is also the central government's sincere care for Hong Kong and Hong Kong people.
As we've been discussing for weeks, should Hong Kong's crisis spillover into the Mainland, the economic and societal impacts could be enormous. China's population is believed largely susceptible to the virus, with little acquired immunity and a widely-distributed, but likely ineffectual Sinovac vaccine against the Omicron variant.
Today's update from the HK government follows, after which I'll have more.
4.2k COVID-19 cases reported
February 16, 2022
The Centre for Health Protection today said it is investigating 4,285 additional COVID-19 cases, of which 21 are imported and the rest are locally infected.
A total of 12,344 positive cases were reported in Hong Kong over the past 14 days, comprising 94 imported and 12,250 locally acquired infections.
At a press briefing this afternoon, the Hospital Authority’s Chief Manager (Patient Safety & Risk Management) Dr Sara Ho said 90% of the isolation facilities are utilised, reaching the authority’s limit.
“We observed that some patients are waiting outdoors. This is far from satisfactory. We are very sorry for letting the elderly wait outdoors in such unfavourable conditions. That is why we are also trying to explore different waiting areas for them.”
She said the authority is taking measures to make hospitals less congested in order to reduce the risk of infection there.
“For the RCHEs (residential care home for the elderly), those residents who attended the accident and emergency department because of non-COVID-19 reasons, after initial assessment, if we find they are stable, we will transfer them, let them rest and let them go back to the residential care home for the elderly.
“At the same time, we will arrange for the CGAT (Community Geriatric Assessment Team) to reassess the patient.
“I hope these measures can decrease the congestion in hospitals and also decrease the risk of nosocomial infection in the hospitals. This, at the same time, can alleviate the congestion in the hospitals.”
Additionally, nine patients confirmed with COVID-19 infection passed away. Apart from a 100-year-old woman and a three-year-old girl who were announced yesterday, the other seven patients include three men and four women who were aged between 37 and 97.
The Government made restriction-testing declarations in the afternoon to cover Yiu Ping House, Yiu On Estate in Sha Tin and Mun Wo House, Mun Tung Estate in Tung Chung, requiring people in the restricted areas to undergo compulsory testing.
It made the decision after sewage discharged from two buildings tested positive for the virus and preliminary positive patients who lived in Mun Wo House were detected recently.
Positive sewage test results were found at Ching Long House, Ching Ho Estate in Sheung Shui and more than 30 people in the building have preliminarily tested positive for the virus, so the Government has extended the restriction-testing declaration period to tomorrow.
For information and health advice on COVID-19, visit the Government's dedicated webpage.
We've seen Mainland China use what many people would regard as `draconian' measures to control COVID - first to quell the initial outbreak in the spring of 2020 - and since then to stamp out smaller outbreaks.
And those tactics worked - at least against a much less transmissible COVID virus - but it remains to be seen whether those types of controls can successfully suppress Omicron. And if so, at what cost?
While no ultimatum was stated in Xi's message to Hong Kong, failure to bring their epidemic under control is likely to have serious consequences.
Stay tuned.
