Top Hong Kong scientists on Tuesday (March 22) urged the territory's authorities to abandon China's "
zero Covid
" strategy before a new epidemic wave so that the financial hub does not become a "
closed port forever
".
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“
The past two months have been a very painful experience and we cannot afford to wait
Gabriel Leung, who leads a team of scientists working on the virus, told reporters.
On Monday, Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced an easing of restrictions from April 1 - mainly concerning international flights and the duration of quarantine on arrival in the territory - but refused to give a sheet. way out of the crisis.
Hong Kong has been in the throes of an unprecedented outbreak since the highly contagious Omicron variant emerged in early January.
Gabriel Leung, dean of the faculty of medicine at the University of Hong Kong, is a government expert to whom Carrie Lam refers regularly.
He urged the city on Tuesday to consider Covid an endemic disease and to emphasize vaccination,
will remain a closed port forever
”.
For Gabriel Leung, the coronavirus should be considered an endemic disease and it is "
the safest way because we do not know if the next variant will be weaker or stronger than those we have known
".
Worst outbreak since 2020
Such an approach would amount to a departure from the Chinese strategy.
But President Xi Jinping last week refused a relaxation of the “
Zero Covid
as his country faces its worst outbreak since 2020, preferring to confine tens of millions of people.
Gabriel Leung's team estimates that some 4.4 million people in Hong Kong, one of the most densely populated cities in the world, or 60% of the population, have been infected since the start of a fifth local wave in January. related to the Omicron variant.
Official figures show more than a million cases and nearly 6,100 deaths since January, mostly among the unvaccinated elderly population.
Since the start of the pandemic, the city of 7.4 million inhabitants has applied a strict “Zero Covid” policy, like China, which for almost two years has allowed it to be relatively spared from the virus.
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But since the appearance of the Omicron variant in early January, hospitals have been overwhelmed and Hong Kong is now among the developed territories with one of the highest death rates.
The draconian measures imposed by the authorities in an attempt to stem the pandemic have caused an exodus of foreign and local inhabitants.