‘District lockdowns, 700,000 Covid tests a day’: how China will help Hong Kong – but Omicron also test of government’s mettle, analysts say

Name: Hong Kong's Covid-19 isolation beds 90% full as city records more than 2,000 new cases
Uploaded: 2022-02-15T00:00:31.000Z
Duration: 2 min 18 s
Description: Hong Kong's Covid-19 isolation beds 90% full as city records more than 2,000 new cases

Using a rolling lockdown, source says, Hong Kong will need about 10 days to complete mass testing to try and tame raging fifth wave of coronavirus

Unprecedented nature of help has sparked questions on scale of assistance, how it will be managed and whether city can pull off intervention without creating more chaos

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Residents wait for Covid-19 testing at a mobile screening point in Wong Tai Sin. Photo: Felix Wong

Lilian ChengandNatalie Wong

Published: 8:00am, 15 Feb 2022Updated: 10:47am, 15 Feb 2022

Mainland Chinese officials will share their experience in conducting lockdowns of small districts as part of the cross-border help being ironed out and it is likely the city’s Covid-19 testing capacity will need to be ramped up to at least 700,000 a day to replicate the approach, the Post has learned.

Under such a scenario of pursuing a rolling lockdown of “xiao qu” or small districts like in mainland cities, a source said Hong Kong would need about 10 days to complete mass testing to try and tame the raging fifth wave of the coronavirus, especially the much more transmissible Omicron variant.

Such plans were among several being discussed within the administration after a meeting on Saturday between the Hong Kong government and mainland officials in Shenzhen to set out what the city needed.

02:18

Hong Kong's Covid-19 isolation beds 90% full as city records more than 2,000 new cases

Late on Sunday, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor announced the formation of five task forces that would coordinate with the mainland and Guangdong authorities on the help being sought.

The unprecedented nature of the mainland help had sparked questions on the scale of the assistance, how it would be managed and whether the city could pull off the intervention without creating more chaos and confusion.

Analysts said they saw management of the pandemic as a key test of the chief executive’s ability to lead Hong Kong. Mainland academic Tian Feilong described it as a test of the principle of “patriots” ruling the city and the “one country, two systems” governing model as well.

On Monday, the city was hit with another record-breaking 2,071 new confirmed cases and about 4,500 preliminary infections.

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