Hong Kong battles COVID surge with mass isolation facilities

Hong Kong battles COVID surge with mass isolation facilities

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Hong Kong struggled to contain a worsening COVID-19 outbreak with mass isolation facilities and makeshift morgues on Monday as authorities reported 25,150 new infections and 280 deaths.

Coronavirus has torn through hundreds of nursing homes and hit many of the city’s unvaccinated elderly. The deluge of cases has swamped Hong Kong hospitals, isolation centres and funeral parlours beyond capacity and left the healthcare system, public transport, malls, postal services, supermarkets and pharmacies struggling without staff.

A makeshift testing center in Hong Kong during the recent COVID-19 outbreak on March 6, 2022.
Marc Fernandes/NurPhoto via ZUMA Press
A refrigerated container for corpses being placed near a funeral home in Hong Kong on March 7, 2022.
A refrigerated container for corpses being placed near a funeral home in Hong Kong on March 7, 2022.
AP Photo/Vincent Yu
Hong Kong healthcare workers transporting a corpse from a container to a hearse.
Hong Kong healthcare workers transporting a corpse from a container to a hearse.
AP Photo/Vincent Yu

While Hong Kong was successful in controlling the virus in 2021, it has recently seen COVID-19 infections soar to a total of around 500,000. Most of the Chinese-ruled city’s more than 2,200 deaths have been in the past two weeks.

The figures come as the global financial hub clings to a “dynamic zero” coronavirus strategy, which as in mainland China seeks to eradicate all outbreaks.

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