Editorial | Images of Hong Kong in crisis demand greater care for most vulnerable
- Scenes of the old and young trying to keep warm in the cold as they wait outside public hospitals while Covid cases surge are a deafening call for action from officials
The disturbing scenes of coronavirus patients huddling in the cold and rain outside hospitals in Hong Kong call for urgent solutions as the temperature dips further this weekend.
The images, reported far and wide by the local and international media, are powerful reminders of how bureaucracy and complacency have plunged a once model city into an apparent state of total unpreparedness for an escalating public health crisis.
Announcing the decision to delay the chief executive election and plans to conduct mandatory citywide testing later, leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor conceded that the fifth wave might take two to three months to stabilise.
This means public hospitals will continue to be under pressure. This week, their outdoor areas were lined with beds and chairs, with old and young wrapped in blankets and coverings trying to keep warm as they waited hours to be admitted.
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Hong Kong hospitals set up outdoor wards as city buckles under rising coronavirus infections
Priority must be given to those who need urgent care. Patients must not be left to wait in the cold while facilities are occupied by those in a less serious condition. Lam said such a situation was unacceptable and she had ordered it to be resolved by yesterday.