What’s new: Hong Kong will postpone a plan to test the entire population of 7.4 million for Covid-19 in March as the city shifts its focus to reducing fatalities amid a wild surge of infections.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam disclosed an indefinite delay for the testing plan Wednesday and said authorities will prioritize efforts to expand vaccinations for elderly people living at care facilities and increase the number of hospital beds to treat patients.
“I cannot say that we definitely won’t” conduct the mass test, Lam said. “But if we will, and once we have a detailed plan and timetable, we will definitely announce it as early as possible.”
The priority shift echoed suggestions from mainland experts assisting the city’s fight against the pandemic surge. Liang Wannian, an epidemiologist who has overseen China’s Covid response and is advising Hong Kong, said the city should focus on reducing deaths and severe cases, especially among the elderly.
The background: Hong Kong has been struggling to tame a fifth wave of Covid-19 outbreak, which has sicked more than 530,000 and killed 2,300 since late December. The flare-up has been largely caused by the omicron variant.
The city is suffering the world’s highest Covid death rate. Its seven-day rolling average of confirmed Covid-19 deaths as of March 6 was 25.5 per 1 million people — more than five times that of the U.S. — topping a global chart maintained by Our World in Data, a project based at Oxford University in the U.K.
Researchers from the University of Hong Kong estimated that 4.3 million of Hong Kong’s 7.4 million residents could be infected with Covid-19 by May 1, with death numbers totaling 5,008.
Contact reporter Han Wei (weihan@caixin.com) and editor Bob Simison (bob.simison@caixin.com)
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