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Well being authorities introduced Friday they’re additionally monitoring 19 new instances, largely imported and all suspected to be Omicron — together with a cargo pilot who visited a number of widespread eating places and bars on Monday, simply days after getting back from the US. On Tuesday he was decided to be a detailed contact of one other affected person and despatched to the federal government’s quarantine heart; by Wednesday, he had examined constructive for the virus.
Hong Kong hasn’t seen a regionally transmitted Covid case with an unknown supply for practically three months; the final such reported case was on October 8. Although town had reported plenty of imported Omicron instances from quarantined abroad vacationers in December, the variant hadn’t damaged to the area people till now.
“There at the moment are imported instances that discovered their manner into the group, resulting in a cluster of infections. This newest growth is extraordinarily worrying,” mentioned Sophia Chan, the Secretary for Meals and Well being, in a information convention on Friday.
She added that authorities have been now making ready for an impending fifth wave, and urged the general public to not congregate in crowded areas for New Yr celebrations. “The following two weeks shall be a vital interval to maintain out Omicron. That is actually crucial,” she mentioned.
On Thursday night time, authorities locked down the residential buildings the place the 76-year-old and 34-year-old lived, and launched a mass testing marketing campaign for anyone who had just lately visited the premises. The testing covers 60 different premises throughout town, with residents solely allowed to go away “restricted areas” after presenting proof of a unfavorable check end result.
The restaurant the place the 2 sufferers dined has additionally been closed for cleansing, disinfecting and different measures to enhance airflow, mentioned the Heart of Well being Safety.
“The federal government has remained vigilant and has been carefully monitoring the most recent scientific knowledge on mutant strains in addition to the epidemic state of affairs of varied locations,” mentioned a CHP spokesperson in a press release. “Essentially the most stringent anti-epidemic measures shall be carried out to stop the mutant pressure from spreading in the area people.”
However the sustainability of this method has been referred to as into query in current months, with a number of different locations akin to Australia and New Zealand abandoning the zero-Covid mannequin in favor of “residing with Covid.” In mainland China, the world’s largest zero-Covid holdout, more and more frequent and widespread outbreaks have challenged the method — as do Hong Kong’s newest instances.
Hong Kong’s vaccination fee has lagged behind different developed nations, with lower than 70% of the inhabitants totally vaccinated thus far. All 12 months, authorities have struggled to encourage larger vaccination charges — significantly among the many reluctant aged, probably the most susceptible inhabitants.
“We’ve got to organize for the worst as a result of we do not truly know what number of received contaminated in the long run due to this case,” mentioned Leo Poon, head of Hong Kong College’s Public Well being Laboratory Sciences division, on Friday. “Omicron is spreading throughout the globe, in Europe, within the Americas, and and in addition in all probability someday sooner or later in Asia.”
He added that the zero-Covid technique was nonetheless viable for now as a result of Hong Kong solely has a couple of instances. The previous couple of months of no native instances proves that “the screening mechanism right here is kind of efficient,” he mentioned.
Nevertheless, it is a trade-off, he mentioned — tighter restrictions may forestall Covid from coming into town, however at the price of closely disrupting the economic system, stream of products, folks’s capability to journey, and different elements of each day life. And, he added, “now that we simply give you a tougher (variant), meaning we could must nice tune our management coverage.”
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