Leading health adviser predicts Hong Kong’s Omicron outbreak could end before Lunar New Year festival in February
- Current surge of cases could peter out by Lunar New Year if local infections remain stable and no cases are untraceable, Professor Yuen Kwok-yung says
- Health officials also track down source of one infection that was classified as unlinked, leaving city with just a single untraceable case
Hong Kong could bring an end to the Omicron outbreak in as little as two weeks if local infections remain stable and no cases are untraceable, a top government health adviser has said, as officials prepare to announce a review of social-distancing rules.
Beijing has repeatedly stressed Hong Kong must eliminate unlinked cases before a scheme offering quarantine-free travel to mainland China could begin.
In making his prediction, University of Hong Kong microbiologist Professor Yuen Kwok-yung said the current string of infections was being managed and the overall tally had not drastically increased.
“If we can identify all the transmission chains and the number of local cases remains stable, this wave of the coronavirus could end before or after Chinese New Year,” he told a radio programme.
Bars and pubs, along with 14 other types of businesses, have been forced to shut in a bid to contain the current outbreak. In announcing the measures last week, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said the government would review the situation and decide on Friday whether to extend or tighten the rules.
