Hong Kong to impose strict lockdown for nine days amid Covid-19 outbreak

|HT|

Hong Kong should impose a strict, city-wide lockdown for nine days to rein in its snowballing Covid-19 outbreak rather than prolong social-distancing restrictions that are strangling business, lawmaker Michael Tien said. Singapore’s daily cases reached a record high of more than 25,000 on Tuesday. HSBC Holdings Plc will close its retail branches in Hong Kong on Saturdays amid the city’s outbreak.

New coronavirus infections in the US slowed to the lowest level since the arrival of the highly contagious omicron variant in December. Hospitalizations in New York state fell by 1,000 in a week, and Apple Inc. dropped its mask mandate across most retail stores across the US.

Key Developments:

• Virus Tracker: Cases pass 427.3 million; deaths top 5.9 million

• Vaccine Tracker: More than 10.6 billion doses administered

• Singapore is winning from Hong Kong’s Covid crisis

• What we know about omicron and subvariant BA.2: QuickTake

• Omicron ripping through cargo ships may exacerbate shipping woes

• Tiny apartments increase Covid isolation pain in Hong Kong

All HSBC retail branches in Hong Kong will be closed temporarily on Saturdays, the bank said in an emailed statement. Eleven HSBC outlets will be closed temporarily from Wednesday until further notice after several staff tested positive to Covid-19.

China is racing to defuse omicron flareups in Wuhan, where a business meeting last week led to the spread of the variant among participants and their families. Local media reported that the meeting was a training session organized by Nu Skin Enterprises Inc., a U.S. skincare and health supplement direct-selling company.

Wuhan has reported 14 infections this week, with 13 of them having attended the training and the other being one of their family members. Meanwhile, Beijing also reported 10 cases on Wednesday, among people that local media reports suggest returned from the Nu Skin meeting in Wuhan. The east coastal city of Qingdao also reported an infection linked to the Wuhan cases.

Hong Kong should impose a strict, city-wide lockdown for nine days to rein in its escalating Covid outbreak rather than prolong social-distancing restrictions that are strangling business, lawmaker Michael Tien said.

All non-essential businesses would be shuttered and residents tested three times over the lockdown period, Tien, a pro-China lawmaker in the city’s Legislative Council and a Hong Kong deputy to China’s National People’s Congress, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Wednesday.

Tien is the first legislator to call so prominently for a mainland-style lockdown, with Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam repeatedly dismissing the prospect, instead saying the city will engage in a mass testing effort and may consider localized stay-at-home orders. Lam unveiled details late Tuesday of a plan to test the city’s 7.4 million residents three times in March, and to extend social-distancing curbs -- including limits on restaurant dining and family gatherings -- until at least mid-April.

Singapore’s daily cases reached a new high of over 25,000 on Tuesday, prompting moves by the Ministry of Health to conserve medical resources.

The current wave of infections may take a few weeks to subside, the ministry said. Singapore detected 25,731 new local Covid cases as of noon Tuesday, including those detected through rapid testing, almost double the 13,476 recorded the day before, the latest ministry data showed.

Singapore plans to substantially ease travel and social restrictions once the current wave of Covid infections peaks amid mounting evidence that the omicron variant is less threatening than its predecessors.

Apple Inc. has dropped its mask requirement at most retail stores across the US, following reduced Covid-19 cases and changes in local mandates. The iPhone maker also is ramping up for the return of in-store classes.

The company announced the changes this week to employees at eligible stores and has updated its website to reflect which locations are no longer requiring masks. Apple, however, will continue to recommend that customers wear masks and will provide them upon request. Apple retail workers will still be required to wear masks, employees say.

Chicago, the third-largest US city, will lift its mask mandate for indoor public places on Feb. 28, following similar plans announced earlier this month by the state of Illinois, city officials announced. This represents “a huge step forward in our effort to overcome Covid-19,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said at a news conference.

The city will still require masks in some congregate settings like public transit. Chicago will also lift its rule requiring proof of vaccination in sites such as restaurants.

Covid-19 hospitalizations in New York state have declined by more than 1,000 in the past week, Governor Kathy Hochul said Tuesday.

The state reported 2,461 hospitalizations, down from 3,504 on Feb. 15. The rate of positive Covid tests was less than 2.5% for a fourth straight day, Hochul said.

One month ago, New York had more than 10,000 hospitalized for Covid and a positive test rate of 9.23%.

The US recorded 722,053 new coronavirus cases in the week ended Sunday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University and Bloomberg. That’s the lowest weekly tally since the last week in November, before the arrival of the highly transmissible omicron variant.

The seven-day average of new cases in the US fell to 89,024 on Monday, the lowest since Dec. 1, according to a database maintained by the New York Times.

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon criticized the U.K. government’s decision to ditch remaining restrictions in England and phase out free Covid-19 testing. She told the Scottish Parliament that tests would remain free of charge in Scotland to help limit transmission as hospital admissions remain high.

The administration in Edinburgh, which is responsible for health matters in Scotland and run by the pro-independence Scottish National Party, has diverged from Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government throughout the pandemic, such as requiring the use of face coverings in indoor public spaces for longer. In Scotland’s latest policy document on what comes next, Scotland will also continue to ask people who test positive for Covid to self isolate, Sturgeon said. New data from Denmark show that it’s possible to be infected twice with two different types of the variant.

Out of 2 million positive tests since November, 67 people have had both the BA.1., and the BA.2. variant with 20 to 60 days interval, Denmark’s institute for infectious diseases said in a statement on Tuesday. Of those, 47 first caught the BA.1. and were predominately young and unvaccinated, suffering only mild symptoms.

Denmark lifted all restrictions on Feb. 1 and declared that Covid-19 was no longer a threat to society, despite record-high daily virus cases. The so-called reproduction rate fell to 0.8 on Tuesday, meaning the outbreak is shrinking.

(Except for the headline and the pictorial description, this story has not been edited by THE DEN staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)