Hong Kong leader says city is not yet past COVID peak
12/03/2022 05:23
HONG KONG, March 12 (Reuters) - Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam
said on Saturday that the city's COVID-19 outbreak wasn't yet
past its peak despite recent daily case numbers showing a slight
levelling off.
"At this moment, we could not comfortably say that we have
past the peak," Lam told reporters.
Health authorities reported 29,381 new infections on Friday,
urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N2VE0BS compared with 31,402 new cases on Thursday.
Lam added that fresh food supplies from mainland China had
largely been restored to previous levels, after panic buying by
the public in recent weeks had seen some supermarket shelves
emptied on a daily basis.
In total since early 2020, the global financial hub has
recorded almost 650,000 COVID-19 infections and about 3,500
deaths - 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 China's response to aid
Hong Kong in trying to contain the outbreak, was cited by the
China News Agency as saying the city's COVID-19 situation was
still severe and to adequately prepare oneself mentally for this
"long-term war".
He added that the government needed to do carry out its
anti-epidemic work in a precise manner like "acupuncture" 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 wasn't
working effectively and in unison to battle the outbreak.
(Reporting by James Pomfret and Hong Kong Bureau; Editing by
Michael Perry)
((james.pomfret@thomsonreuters.com; +852-28436390; Reuters
Messaging: james.pomfret.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))