‘Overriding mission’ to control Covid in Hong Kong, says Xi Jinping

China’s President Xi Jinping has told Hong Kong’s leaders that their “overriding mission” was to stabilise the worsening Covid-19 situation in the city as local authorities struggle to bring the worst outbreak of the disease under control.

Xi’s instructions were issued in the backdrop of reports from Hong Kong that talked about the health system of the financial hub being overwhelmed by Covid-19 with infected patients being forced to lie on beds outside hospitals.

Xi said Hong Kong’s chief executive Carrie Lam’s government should make stabilising the Covid-19 situation its top priority, the state-run Wen Wei Po and Ta Kung Pao newspapers reported on Wednesday.

“The Hong Kong government must take up the main responsibility, to stabilise and control the pandemic as soon as possible as the current overriding priority, to mobilise every resource that can be mobilised, to take all necessary measures, to ensure the safety and health of all Hong Kong residents, to ensure the stability of Hong Kong’s society,” Xi was quoted as saying by the newspaper, Wen Wei Po.

Xi conveyed the instructions through vice-premier Han Zheng, a member of the seven-member standing committee of the Communist Party of China’s politburo.

According to the reports, Xi has asked Han, the top leader from the mainland overseeing Hong Kong affairs, to relay to Lam the president’s “concern about the pandemic situation in the city and his care for Hong Kong residents”.

Han instructed relevant departments of the central government and south China’s Guangdong province, which neighbours Hong Kong, to respond to requests for improving the city’s nucleic acid testing capacity, supplying rapid test kits, ensuring the supply of necessities for local residents, and sending epidemic prevention experts for guidance.

Following Xi’s statement, Lam expressed her “heartfelt gratitude” to the president while admitting that local authorities had been overwhelmed by the city’s surging fifth wave of infections.

“The rapid development of the pandemic has put Hong Kong in an extremely severe situation. The situation has also greatly exceeded the Hong Kong government’s ability to respond,” she said.

Until Tuesday, the city’s surging fifth wave of infections has already accounted for 14,020 confirmed cases since it began in late December, more than the 12,650 cases recorded over the entire pandemic prior to that point, the city-based South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported on Wednesday.

Over 4,000 new cases were expected on Wednesday, the SCMP said.

It reported that Carrie Lam is expected to meet the city’s property developers on Wednesday to discuss the use of an additional 10,000 rooms to address the critical shortage of isolation facilities for infected patients.

Overall, the city, with a population of around 7.5 million, has recorded around 26,000 infections since the start of the pandemic, including just over 200 deaths, far fewer than other similar-sized major cities.

Medical experts have warned cases could surge to 28,000 daily by the end of March amid worries about high levels of vaccine hesitancy among the elderly.

The surge in cases, nearly up by 10 times since the beginning of the month, is proving to be the toughest test for the global financial hub’s “dynamic zero” policy to control the pandemic despite turning it into one of the world’s most isolated cities.