As Covid surge batters Hong Kong, China tightens grip

Hong Kong reported 15 coronavirus deaths and more than 6,000 confirmed cases for a second day in a surge the Chinese territory’s leader says is overwhelming hospitals.

The government announced plans to have construction crews from mainland China build isolation units with 10,000 beds after crowding at hospitals forced patients to wait outdoors in winter cold.

There were 6,063 confirmed cases in the previous 24 hours, raising the territory’s total to 46,763. That was down slightly from Thursday’s 6,116 but one of Hong Kong’s highest daily totals.

Hong Kong has tightened travel and business controls as it tries to contain the surge. On Friday, the chief executive, Carrie Lam, announced the election for her post would be postponed by six weeks to 8 May due to “public health risks”.

Lam said on Monday the territory’s hospitals were overwhelmed. The government said the new isolation and treatment units will be built in the Penny’s Bay and Kai Tak districts.

CHINA’S ‘ZERO TOLERANCE’ POLICY

China’s approach to stamping out the coronavirus on the mainland has been brute force: citywide lockdowns, aggressive testing and tracing, and highly restrictive rules. The policy that China calls “Covid zero” has tamped down major outbreaks, such as in Xi’an, where residents were in lockdown for a month.

But now, China faces a difficult and alarming challenge in the rapid spread of the omicron variant in Hong Kong. The strict measures of the mainland may be difficult to impose on the semiautonomous territory, but without them, the outbreak looks certain to expand.

ELECTIONS POSTPONED

Hong Kong will postpone the election of its next leader so that it can focus on containing a surge in coronavirus cases driven by the Omicron variant, the city’s chief executive said on Friday.

The leader of Hong Kong is not elected by the public, but by an “election committee” of more than 1,400 backers of China’s Communist Party. The vote by that committee, which was to take place on March 27, was rescheduled for May 8, said the chief executive, Carrie Lam.

She also announced a plan to introduce mandatory testing for the city’s entire population of 7.5 million. She had previously rejected calls from pro-Beijing lawmakers to introduce mandatory universal testing.

“Our government needs to focus on the epidemic,” Mrs. Lam said at a news conference on Friday. “We cannot afford to lose.”

COVID CURBS REIMPOSED

Hong Kong has tightened travel and business controls as it tries to contain the surge. On Friday, Chief Executive Carrie Lam said the election for her post would be postponed by six weeks to May 8 due to “public health risks.”

Lam said Monday the territory’s hospitals were overwhelmed. The government said the new isolation and treatment units will be built in the Penny’s Bay and Kai Tak districts.

Mainland Chinese crews have experience constructing hospitals quickly after two facilities with 1,500 and 1,000 beds were built in Wuhan, the center of the outbreak, in 10 days in early 2020. They also converted 16 other buildings into isolation hospitals.

Lam said her government also would use hotel rooms, sports facilities and newly built public housing units to hold patients.

The chief executive of the Hospital Authority, Tony Ko, apologized in a radio broadcast Saturday after patients were forced to wait outdoors. He said most had been moved indoors or to other facilities.