Covid-19: Hong Kong may impose a China-style lockdown says health chief, two weeks after Lam ruled it out

Covid-19: Hong Kong may impose a China-style lockdown says health chief, two weeks after Lam ruled it out

Hong Kong may impose a China-style hard lockdown that confines people to their homes, authorities signalled Monday, with the city’s zero-Covid strategy in tatters and bodies piling up in hospitals.

Two years of strict zero-Covid policies kept the coronavirus largely bay but a breakthrough of the highly transmissible Omicron variant exposed how little authorities had done to prepare for a mass outbreak.

The accident & emergency unit at Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Photo: GovHK.

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam previously ruled out a citywide lockdown and instead has ordered all 7.4 million residents to be tested in March.