{"id":410606,"date":"2022-02-28T12:03:32","date_gmt":"2022-02-28T09:03:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/virus-hit-hong-kong-considering-lockdown-health-chief\/"},"modified":"2022-02-28T12:03:32","modified_gmt":"2022-02-28T09:03:32","slug":"virus-hit-hong-kong-considering-lockdown-health-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/virus-hit-hong-kong-considering-lockdown-health-chief\/","title":{"rendered":"#Virus-hit Hong Kong considering lockdown: health chief"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Virus-hit Hong Kong considering lockdown: health chief<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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Hong Kong may impose a China-style hard lockdown that confines people to their homes, authorities signalled Monday, with the city’s zero-COVID strategy in tatters and bodies piling up in hospitals.\n <\/p>\n

Two years of strict zero-COVID policies kept the coronavirus largely bay but a breakthrough of the highly transmissible Omicron variant exposed how little authorities had done to prepare for a mass outbreak.<\/p>\n

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam previously ruled out a citywide lockdown and instead has ordered all 7.4 million residents to be tested in March.<\/p>\n

But in a U-turn, health secretary Sophia Chan confirmed on Monday that it was still an option.<\/p>\n

Asked by a presenter at Commercial Radio whether a lockdown was still ruled out she replied: “No. We are still discussing.”<\/p>\n

“From a public health perspective, to bring out the best effect of compulsory universal testing, we need to reduce people’s movements to some extent,” she added.<\/p>\n

Chan’s comments came a day after Li Dachuan, a senior mainland official involved in a joint taskforce with Hong Kong authorities, described a lockdown as “the most ideal and best app<\/a>roach to achieve the best effect of universal tests”.<\/p>\n

The revelation adds fresh uncertainty and anxiety for residents and businesses in a city gripped by the kind of chaos that was more familiar at the start of the pandemic. <\/p>\n

Hong Kong announced 26,000 new infections and 83 deaths on Sunday alone. Before the current wave, the city had recorded just 12,000 cases from the start of the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Hospitals have been stretched to breaking point for weeks and on Sunday officials revealed bodies are piling up at hospitals because mortuaries are full.<\/p>\n

“At this moment, we face a problem of transportation of dead bodies from hospital to public mortuary,” Hospital Authority chief manager Lau Ka-hin told reporters.<\/p>\n

“That’s why there are some bodies who were initially planned to be transported to public mortuary, but stayed in hospital.”<\/p>\n

High mortality rate<\/b><\/p>\n

Hong Kong’s seven-day average death rate is currently running at around eight per one million people. <\/p>\n

That compares with five per million for the United States, 1.80 for Britain and 1.36 for Singapore which, like Hong Kong, initially opted for zero-COVID but shifted more recently to a mitigation strategy and reopening to the wider world.<\/p>\n

On Sunday officials revealed that 91 percent of those who have died in the current wave were not fully vaccinated. <\/p>\n

The vast majority of the dead are elderly with the virus ripping through care homes in the densely populated city.<\/p>\n

Despite ample supplies Hong Kong had poor vaccination rates among over-70s before Omicron struck.<\/p>\n

China is now increasingly calling the shots on Hong Kong’s response with the joint taskforce operating out of the neighbouring city of Shenzhen.<\/p>\n

Mainland crews are working on constructing a series<\/a> of temporary hospitals and isolation wards for the infected, although the current caseload far outstrip<\/a>s supply.<\/p>\n

Among those advising the government is Liang Wannian, a senior mainland official that the South China Morning Post reported was arriving in Hong Kong on Monday.<\/p>\n

Liang was a key architect of the successful two-month long lockdown in Wuhan where the coronavirus first emerged, a strategy China has continued to deploy in other cities as soon as cases are detected.<\/p>\n

But Wuhan’s official toll was just 53,000 cases, a fraction of the caseload in Hong Kong which is also battling a much more infectious variant.\n <\/p>\n\n

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Hong Kong leader says city ‘overwhelmed’ by Omicron wave\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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\n \u00a9 2022 AFP<\/p>\n

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\n Virus-hit Hong Kong considering lockdown: health chief (2022, February 28)
\n retrieved 28 February 2022
\n from https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/news<\/a>\/2022-02-virus-hit-hong-kong-lockdown-health.html<\/p>\n

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