Pandemic fatigue and Covid strike in Hong Kong
Chinese president Xi Jinping has told Hong Kong to “take all necessary steps” to contain the city’s fifth and biggest Covid-19 wave, “sparking fears of more stringent measures”, say Chan Ho-him and Primrose Riordan in the Financial Times. In a “rare directive”, Xi said Hong Kong should “mobilise all possible forces and resources” to protect public health and maintain social stability.
The city, which has a relatively low double vaccination rate of 64%, is one of the few remaining places to be pursuing a “dynamic zero” policy and so far it has been highly effective, says Didi Tang in The Times. Since the start of the pandemic in 2020, there have been a reported 26,000 infections and 223 deaths. The latest crisis, which has so far claimed 14 lives, is being blamed on the highly transmissible Omicron variant. Hospitals are now being overwhelmed and authorities are struggling to quarantine the thousands of people testing positive every day, most of whom have Covid-19 mildly or asymptomatically.
The surge comes amid “rising pandemic fatigue” following nearly two years of stringent measures which have shut the finance hub off from much of the world, says Sarah Newey in The Daily Telegraph. A rare protest, organised by one of Hong Kong’s few remaining pro-democracy parties, the League of Social Democrats, took place outside the central government’s offices on Tuesday. Last week, on the back of the latest curbs, Fitch Ratings “slashed” its growth forecast for 2022 by half to 1.5%, putting Hong Kong “among the weakest performers in the world”, says Rachel Cheung on Al Jazeera. Meanwhile, travel bans and lengthy quarantines continue with “no end in sight”, even as health experts question whether elimination of Omicron is possible. Foreign companies are leaving or relocating their executives and a wave of small business closures is expected imminently, accompanied by “skyrocketing unemployment”.