Omicron: Hong Kong officials released from quarantine will have to use vacation days to self-isolate; second unlinked Covid-19 case detected

Eleven officials released from quarantine after being deemed unlikely to have been exposed to infected guests at a now-infamous birthday bash will still have to undergo nearly two weeks of home isolation – using their own vacation leave – before being allowed to return to work.

The latest development in what is rapidly turning into a political crisis for city leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor came as calls mounted for the government to hold accountable the dozens of officials who attended the birthday party along with a confirmed coronavirus patient and where social-distancing rules might have been broken last week. The fiasco has already seen dozens of ministers and lawmakers ordered into quarantine.

The Omicron wave is threatening to overrun the city just as families, already exhausted by following some of the most restrictive pandemic-control measures in the world, prepare to celebrate the Lunar New Year festival at the start of February. The rising number of cases also comes as campaigning for the chief executive race is about to begin, and while Lam has not said whether she will seek re-election, neither has any other candidate stepped forward yet.

Authorities also said another guest at the birthday party attended by ministers and lawmakers was suspected to be carrying the coronavirus and the building where she lives, Harbour Green Tower 2 in Tai Kok Tsui, was locked down while residents underwent screening.

However, her case did not affect the quarantine orders for roughly 100 party-goers, including home affairs chief Caspar Tsui Ying-wai, who apologised a second time for attending, and immigration director Au Ka-wang, both of whom remain in the government’s isolation facility at Penny’s Bay.