Hong Kong Virus Cases Surge Again as Record Outbreak Worsens
Hong Kong reported 21,979 virus cases on Friday as officials struggle to contain the city’s worst ever outbreak.
(Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong reported 21,979 virus cases on Friday as officials struggle to contain the city’s worst ever outbreak and residents prepare for mandatory mass testing next month that’s set to uncover even more infections.
That’s up from 17,269 on Thursday. The city also announced 10,010 confirmed cases.
From Feb. 25, Bloomberg News will highlight the number of ‘reported’ cases disclosed by the Hong Kong government instead of the confirmed case number. This is because the reported cases figure reflects the total number of infections found in the hospital system and detected by private laboratories and doctors in the past 24 hours, making it a more accurate reflection of the state of the outbreak. The confirmed case number is considered outdated as it contains old cases that authorities were already aware of, and is a reflection of the backlogs at both public and private labs.
Health authorities reported 47 new deaths, most of whom weren’t vaccinated and including a nine-year-old boy whose death was announced on Thursday. There are 51 patients in critical condition in hospitals, and 48 people are in serious condition, they said. There are 400 to 500 children in hospital.
The outbreak is now the worst on record for China and has overwhelmed the city’s health-care resources. It’s thrown Hong Kong’s Covid Zero strategy into disarray and Sanford C. Bernstein warned mainland China -- the only other zero-tolerance proponent -- may be at risk of a similar outbreak, with the highly transmissible omicron variant found in about a dozen provinces.
While the mainland has better test and trace capabilities, it’s possible it could face similar challenges to Hong Kong in coming weeks, according to Bernstein. “It seems inevitable that there will be further lockdowns in China in the near term,” analysts wrote in a note, predicting that the most-likely scenario would then be a move toward slowly re-opening over months.
Hong Kong is relying on help from the mainland to curtail the current wave and President Xi Jinping recently instructed leaders to make fighting the pandemic their top priority and to take “all necessary measures” to contain the Covid surge.
The city has imposed some of its strictest anti-virus measures yet, mandating mask wearing even while exercising, limiting public gatherings to two people, and banning unvaccinated people from a raft of public venues from Thursday.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam this week announced compulsory testing of its entire 7.4 million population three times in March, a tactic deployed frequently in mainland China but never before used in the financial hub. The government is increasing the number of isolation facilities available, but it’s unlikely to have enough space to separate everyone who tests positive after the mass testing exercise.
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