Hong Kong hospitals on the verge of collapse as outbreak escalates

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam has cautioned against the collapsing of health system in the city state as a strong surge in cases is expected according to the experts. She said the city was “on verge of a large-scale community outbreak”, warning people to stay at home if they want to avoid the damage. New measures imposed by the authorities include wearing of face-coverings, ban on dine-in eateries and restaurants, effective on Wednesday. Hong Kong which earlier recorded a premature success in controlling the virus is now recording a caseload of 100 new patients each day. Less than a month ago, the average number of newly detected cases was under ten.

Carrie Lam

Lam in a statement made earlier on Tuesday said the city was on the “verge of a large-scale community outbreak which may lead to a collapse of our hospital system and cost lives, especially of the elderly”. She urged the citizens to “follow strictly to social distancing measures and stay at home as far as possible”. The statemen came after Hong Kong registered 106 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday and suffered its 23^rd overall fatality. 145 confirmed cases were reported on Monday.

New restrictions

In a new drive of social distancing measures, on Wednesday, closure of dine-in restaurants kicked in. It was decided that only two individuals from different houses can meet under the strictest rules the city-state has adopted as yet. Putting on Face-coverings is now a must in public places. The bars, gyms and fitness centers and beauty parlors had already been banned from opening earlier in July. Now when only two people can allow to meet outdoors, at the start of the month public gathering of up to 50 people were sanctioned by the government before being reduced to 4 later on.

Was the HK campaign against Corona Successful?

At the start when Corona transcended the border and entered the City, its border with China was immediately closed to, reducing the cross-border movement to trace and trace successfully amid a host of restrictions employed. Earlier this year, the city kept a clean sheet in terms of locally transmitter cases. But as life returned to the normal, a quick rise in locally transmitted cases was recorded. In a couple of weeks, the number of cases increased from single digits to more than 120 now.

Jin Dongyan told the Global Times that “patients from overseas may have brought the virus to communities which resulted in the current local transmission”. The latest person to die from the disease was an inmate of a care home where at lest 45 other people have been infected. Experts in the city have raised concerns that a strain of the virus circulating in Hong Kong could result in a big damage. The virus is believed to have not mutated for at least 22 days meaning it could have adapted well to humans and is now ready for easier local transmission.

Elections

Amidst the new regulations, there are strong chances that Hong Kong’s parliament elections could by postponed by a year. According to News sources HK01, TVB and Hong Kong Economic Times had made the decision on the postponement of selection of its new Legislative council members because of novel coronavirus threats. The elections were due to begin on Sep 6, 2020. Opposition figures, on the other hand claim that the delay is created to reduce the intensity of the angry public sentiment over the passing of new security law.