Hong Kong is bracing for lockdown following a surge that saw the city report a record of more than 55,000 daily new infections recently as the city’s spiraling outbreak sees thousands of residents flee while those remaining strip shelves of food and medicine.
Remarkably, the outlandish figure is up from 32,597 a day earlier. Sadly, health authorities also announced 117 deaths, mostly people from care facilities, and said there are 64 patients in critical condition in hospital.
According to local reports, the continued surge in cases comes amid growing chaos and confusion around the city’s plan to test the whole population of 7.4 million three times in March.
Following the unscrupulous surge, in a television interview, Chief Executive Carrie Lam sought to reassure residents, after the first train-load of goods from mainland China to the city arrived as part of a new program to stabilize import flows.
While urging residents to stop their panicked purchasing, Lam stated that China will ensure Hong Kong has enough food and other supplies during the COVID outbreak. She added that there will be unlimited supplies of medical equipment available.
While admitting that there won’t be enough beds to isolate everyone found to be infected with the virus during the city-wide testing program, Lam pledged to make the process as quick and comprehensive as possible. She averred that people will be able to get their needs met even during the mass testing effort, ruling out a “wholesale” city lockdown.
However, she did not clarify how the mass testing would be conducted and when.
It was stated that the uncertainty about how residents will be treated, and rising case and death rates, led U.S. authorities to warn against travel to the city. The U.S. State Department raised its travel advisory to a Level 4 — Do Not Travel — because of COVID and related restrictions, while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention bumped its travel alert two places to “high.”
In an email statement, the U.S. Consulate General Hong Kong and Macau said the zero-tolerance approach to COVID-19 by Hong Kong and China “severely impacts travel and access to public services”.
“We especially want to note for families considering traveling to or residing in Hong Kong that in some cases, children in Hong Kong who test positive have been separated from their parents and kept in isolation until they meet local hospital discharge requirements.”
Local reports have it that many among the anxious population, which just two months ago were living in largely virus-free conditions, have had enough.
According to government data, there were 43,689 net departures from the city in the past two weeks, the most since the start of the ravaging pandemic.
