Hong Kong leader Lam says city not yet past COVID peak (updated)
12/03/2022 09:22
(Adds latest daily COVID figures)
HONG KONG, March 12 (Reuters) - Hong Kong reported 27,647
new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, with city leader Carrie Lam
saying the outbreak was not yet past its peak despite recent
daily case numbers slightly levelling off.
Health authorities reported 27,647 new positive cases in
Hong Kong on Saturday, versus 29,381 new infections on Friday
urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N2VE0BS and 31,402 new cases on Thursday. 198 new deaths
were also reported in the past 24 hours.
"At this moment, we could not comfortably say that we have
passed the peak," Lam told reporters.
Lam added that fresh food supplies from mainland China had
largely been restored to previous levels, after panic buying in
recent weeks had seen some supermarket shelves emptied.
The global financial hub has recorded almost 650,000
COVID-19 infections and about 3,500 deaths in total since early
2020, with most of them in the past two weeks.
Hong Kong, like mainland China, has adopted a "dynamic zero"
strategy that seeks to curb infections with strict mitigation
measures, even as most other major cities learn to live with the
virus. China and Hong Kong's approach has been severely tested
by the fast spreading Omicron variant.
Hong Kong registered the most deaths per million people
globally in the week to March 9, according to data publication
Our World in Data. Most have been unvaccinated senior citizens.
A senior Chinese official overseeing Hong Kong affairs, Xia
Baolong, who has been helping coordinate Beijing's response to
help Hong Kong contain the outbreak, was cited by the China News
Agency as saying the situation was still severe and told
residents to prepare mentally for a "long-term war".
He added that the government needed to work in a precise
manner and to strengthen inter-departmental coordination.
Responding to the remarks, Lam said "I can assure him ...
that we are putting in every effort to fight this epidemic,"
while dismissing the view that the Hong Kong government was not
working effectively and in unison to battle the outbreak.
(Reporting by James Pomfret and Hong Kong Bureau; Editing by
Michael Perry and Alexander Smith)
((james.pomfret@thomsonreuters.com; +852-28436390; Reuters
Messaging: james.pomfret.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))