Bloomberg Quicktake: Now published this video item, entitled “Hong Kong Races to Contain Covid Outbreak at Public Housing Estate” – below is their description.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam says the government is working to improve support for residents in lockdown as the city races to contain a Covid-19 outbreak at a Kwai Chung public housing estate in the city’s New Territories. Infections at the estate’s Yat Kwai House make up the core of the cluster, said Lam.
“I fully understand the impact on the residents,” said Lam. “I already said that we will improve in terms of the hotline inquiry, we will improve in terms of cleaning the rubbish and distributing the meal boxes, and also arranging in an orderly manner for the residents to undergo compulsory testing.”
Hong Kong is unlikely to significantly relax its Covid measures after the Lunar New Year holiday, Lam said. The city has recorded 226 positive and preliminary positive cases linked to a public housing estate in Kwai Chung as of Jan. 24
The sudden surge in case numbers has unnerved Hong Kong authorities, who hadn’t reported any local transmissions for more than seven months through late December. The city is now battling new waves of infections from both the omicron and delta variants of the virus.
Even limited lockdowns and restrictions on movement create a heavy toll for residents in the densely populated city, which has some of the smallest living spaces in the world. The average apartment size is about 500 square feet. Flats in public estates, such as the one that is currently under lockdown, are usually smaller in size.
Hong Kong has shut schools, banned flight routes, ended indoor restaurant dining after 6 p.m. and closed bars, gyms and beauty parlors since the emergence of omicron in the past weeks.
Bloomberg Quicktake: Now YouTube Channel
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