Hong Kong fights “can’t afford to lose” Covid

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said yesterday that it could take up to three months to stabilize the worsening Covid-19 pandemic, which overwhelmed medical facilities and forced the postponement of the next leader election.
“Our government needs to focus on the epidemic,” Ram told a news conference a week after seeing a 60% increase in daily infections so far this month.
It “cannot be diverted … we cannot afford to lose,” she said.
Quarantine facilities in Hong Kong have reached capacity, more than 95% of beds are full, and some patients, including the elderly, are left in outdoor beds in chilly and sometimes rainy weather.
The former British Empire’s colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997, and China’s President Xi Jinping, who supports the “Dynamic Zero Corona” strategy, said controlling the spread was Hong Kong’s “top priority mission.” Said.
Lam said the daily number of cases in Hong Kong has not yet peaked and a mandatory test program is planned to cover the entire territory.
She said the blockade of the entire city was not planned.
Global Banks HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank said some branches were closed yesterday after several staff were infected.
Hong Kong yesterday reported 3,629 new daily Covid-19 infections, with an additional 7,600 preliminary positive cases.
Authorities have reported 10 deaths in the last 24 hours, with a total death toll of over 240, far less than in other major world cities.
Hospital officials said they are aiming to move all patients currently lying outdoors in outdoor beds indoors before the expected temperature drops to about 10 ° C (50F).
At the Caritas Medical Center on the Kowloon Peninsula in the city, 98-year-old Ramhoon wraps in a sticky wool blanket in a hospital bed in a parking lot on Thursday, waiting for a test to confirm a preliminary positive result for Covid-19. Was there.
“I don’t feel so good,” she said through a surgical mask, next to a similarly wrapped patient wearing a mask and face shield.
Medic Trevor Chung, 29, said the government underestimated the situation.
“I expect things to get worse,” he said. “There are many elderly people in this area, many of whom have not been vaccinated.”
Lam said yesterday that Hong Kong had identified more than 20,000 hotel rooms as quarantine accommodation and real estate developers had gathered to show support.
According to Lam, 21 hotels are interested in turning the facility into a quarantine, “well above the government’s initial goal of 7,000 to 10,000 rooms.”
CK Asset Holdings, owned by billionaire Li Ka-shing, said it will provide more than 3,000 hotel rooms for four hotels.
Sun Hung Kai Properties (SHKP) said it could provide 1,000 rooms.
Both developers said they would broadcast a government promotional video on vaccine passports at major malls.
New World Development plans to provide about 700 rooms, and Henderson Land Development said the founder, Lee, will donate HK $ 10 million ($ 1.3 million) to send anti-epidemic substances to elderly housing and other homes. ..