HONG KONG — As many as 300,000 Hong Kong residents are in isolation at home, the city’s leader said on Sunday, as officials scrambled to build massive quarantine centers and treatment facilities to accommodate patients with even the mildest Covid-19 symptoms.
Until recently, Hong Kong routinely sent close contacts of confirmed Covid cases to government-run quarantine camps. But as the Delta and Omicron varieties spread widely and hospitals scrambled to accommodate nearly 700,000 reported cases in a city of 7.4 million this year, the government was forced to adjust its strict policies. According to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, Hong Kong receives an average of 24,242 new cases per day.
People closely exposed to the infected can now be quarantined at home, provided they do not share kitchens or toilets with other households. For now, the government has also allowed people who have tested positive for the coronavirus to stay at home pending admission to quarantine centers or hospitals. And the quarantine period has been shortened to a week for the fully vaccinated.
Once a world leader in keeping the virus at bay, Hong Kong has tried to keep its rules as strict as possible. Previously, close contacts and travelers entering Chinese territory had to be in isolation for 21 days, one of the longest quarantine periods in the world. On Thursday, Hong Kong’s security minister warned that people who test positive for a rapid test could face prosecution if they refuse the government’s order to enter a quarantine center. (The government still requires anyone who tests positive, including those with mild or no symptoms, to be locked up in hospitals or government-run quarantine centers unless they’re full.)
Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam said on Thursday that the government, with the help of a Chinese construction company, would convert shipping containers into thousands of makeshift huts for insulation. Public housing and hotel rooms are also being requisitioned to add a total of 70,000 new beds to the city’s quarantine capacity.
This weekend, the government launched a new hotline to meet the daily needs of those in isolation at home who are unable to arrange food deliveries or basic necessities themselves. A statement encouraged quarantined residents to rely on family, friends and commercial food deliveries whenever possible so that the hotline can be reserved for those with “real needs.”
This has been challenging in recent weeks as couriers suspend door-to-door deliveries despite unprecedented demand. Grocery stores and drugstores were stripped of groceries and over-the-counter medicines as residents struggled with mixed messages about whether the city would be shut down.
Officials said they had started distributing care packages made up of traditional Chinese medicines to residential homes. They will soon be adding acetaminophen and pulse oximeters to these packs and have mobilized volunteers to deliver them to the elderly and those isolated at home, they said.
“I must confess that due to the large number of people who are in this situation, we may not be able to reach everyone,” said Ms Lam, the city’s leader, at a news conference on Sunday.
