Hong Kong is to postpone the election of its next leader until May 8 as it grapples with a worsening COVID-19 outbreak, yesterday reporting 15 deaths related to the virus and more than 6,000 cases.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥) on Friday said that the election would be delayed by six weeks from March 27, as holding the polls as originally scheduled would pose “public health risks,” even if a committee of only 1,462 people is involved.
Hong Kong’s leader is elected by a committee made up of legislators, representatives of various industries and professions, as well as Hong Kong deputies to the Chinese legislature and other pro-Beijing representatives.
Photo: Bloomberg
Several candidates including film producer Checkley Sin (冼國林) and Titus Wu, a former member of Hong Kong’s largest pro-establishment political party, have confirmed their intention to run.
It is not clear whether Lam will run for re-election.
Hong Kong yesterday confirmed 6,063 cases in the previous 24 hours, raising the territory’s total to 46,763.
Daily new cases exceeded 2,000 for the first time on Monday. On Friday, more than 3,600 new local infections were reported.
Health authorities on Thursday said that the territory’s hospitals were at 90 percent capacity and that its isolation facilities were full.
The Hong Kong government yesterday said that temporary isolation and treatment units would be built in the Penny’s Bay and Kai Tak districts.
Mainland Chinese crews have experience constructing hospitals quickly after two facilities with 1,500 and 1,000 beds were built within 10 days early in the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan, the center of the initial outbreak of the virus. They also converted 16 other buildings into isolation hospitals.
Lam said her government would also use hotel rooms, sports facilities and newly built public housing units to hold patients.
Hong Kong Hospital Authority chief executive Tony Ko (高拔陞) apologized in a radio broadcast after patients were forced to wait outdoors.
He said most of them had been moved indoors or to other facilities.
Lam also said there were plans to test the territory’s entire population for COVID-19, but denied that Hong Kong would be put under a strict lockdown even as it pursues a “zero COVID-19” approach.
“Mandatory testing and a complete city lockdown may not need to go hand in hand. It depends on the actual situation,” she said. “In our case, having examined the unique situation in Hong Kong, we’ll probably just go for universal testing of everyone, but testing more times.”
She cited as an example Macau, which has tested its entire population twice for the virus.
Hong Kong has aligned itself with mainland China’s strict policy to stamp out any COVID-19 transmissions, pursuing a policy that involves quarantining incoming travelers, total lockdowns, extensive contact tracing and mass testing of millions of people.
Lam has stuck to the same strategy, despite the territory’s greater population density, higher incomes and more service-oriented economy than in mainland China.
Last week, the entire upscale Discovery Bay neighborhood in Hong Kong was ordered to undergo testing after authorities found traces of the virus in its sewage.
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