Omicron variant: how long can Hong Kong maintain tough quarantine rules amid global wave? Experts warn current approach unsustainable

Limited capacity means rules requiring arrivals from Omicron-hit countries to quarantine in a government camp cannot hold forever, health experts say

The Penny’s Bay camp has just over 1,900 units set aside for incoming travellers and close contacts combined, with occupancy steadily ticking upwards

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Experts warn that isolation units at the Penny’s Bay Quarantine Centre (pictured) will soon run out as more Omicron-hit countries are subjected to additional entry restrictions. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 8:00am, 16 Dec 2021Updated: 9:08am, 16 Dec 2021

Hong Kong’s tough new rule requiring arrivals from Omicron-hit countries to spend their first week of quarantine in a government camp will not be sustainable for much longer, health experts have warned, as the heavily mutated coronavirus variant continues to spread across the globe at an unprecedented rate.

Cases of the highly transmissible variant had been confirmed in at least 77 countries as of Wednesday, the same day Britain scrapped its stepped-up entry restrictions on 11 African nations after admitting the rules served little purpose with Omicron already circulating at home.

World Health Organization director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had warned the day before that Omicron was “probably in most countries, even if it hasn’t been detected yet”, adding the strain was “spreading at a rate we have not seen with any previous variant”.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has warned that Omicron’s spread is probably already wider than is currently known. Photo: AP

Hong Kong, meanwhile, has hewed to its drastic initial response to the variant’s emergence. Non-Hong Kong residents in countries with active community transmission of Omicron, or ones that have exported cases to the city, are barred from entry.

Residents returning to the city from those countries must spend their first seven days of quarantine in the government’s facility at Penny’s Bay – where they are subject to daily testing – and then isolate for another two weeks in a designated hotel, where they are tested every other day.

There are now 13 countries subject to the strictest rules, including South Africa and 11 other African nations. The United States was added to the list last week, and Britain is expected to join the category soon, with an announcement likely to be made as early as Thursday or Friday, according to a source.

But Dr Siddharth Sridhar, a virologist at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), said quarantining travellers from Omicron-hit countries at Penny’s Bay would not work in the long term.