Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam has appealed for calm, insisting that no decision has been made yet on a citywide lockdown, after authorities confirmed 34,466 new infections – a 32% increase in one day – with 124 coronavirus-related deaths reported on February 28, taking the total death toll to 851. A nine-day lockdown is expected when Hong Kong launches compulsory testing this month. Under the universal screening plan that Lam unveiled, all residents will have to undergo three tests over 15 to 21 days. The mainland was sending 9,000 personnel to help carry out the testing. Some Hong Kong residents resorted to panic buying of basic goods and groceries, cleaning out supermarket shelves, after Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan did not rule out the possibility of a large-scale lockdown. Hong Kong's total number of infections reached 205,780, almost double the 109,326 in the whole of mainland China.
As the number of infections continues to rocket, local hospitals are struggling with shortages of manpower, facilities and experience in treating severe infections. Hong Kong residents are waiting up to 39 hours for an ambulance as the health care system struggles to keep up with an escalating wave of Covid-19 cases, with the delay up by as much as 50% in just two days. Construction of a 3,900-bed makeshift isolation facility in Tsing Yi was completed on February 28 – taking just a week to build with the help of a mainland construction team.
Gary Lau, Chairman of the Hong Kong Association of Freight Forwarding and Logistics (HAFFA), said that the impact of the epidemic has been exacerbated since late December when flag carrier Cathay Pacific operated only seven weekly cargo flights to the Americas and none to Europe and Australia throughout the first quarter of 2022. An international logistics services provider based in Hong Kong said that many containerships are unable to berth in Hong Kong due to the epidemic prevention measures, while additional procedures and sterilization work have extended the waiting time to about a week. “Because of the epidemic, all the traded goods have been affected, ranging from food to electronic devices, with prices surging by 30% to 40% compared with the period before the Chinese New Year,” Lau said. The biggest concern for Lau is the fact that there are not enough truck drivers to deliver goods between Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland, an increasingly major challenge for the regional logistics work. “The drivers are under strict control in a bid to prevent the epidemic from spreading,” he said. Despite the global pandemic, Hong Kong's overall import and export value in 2021 still achieved double-digit growth, with the value of exports increasing by 26.3% year-on-year and that of imports increasing by 24.3% year-on-year, according to the HKSAR government.
Travelers from nine countries – Australia, Britain, Canada, France, India, Pakistan, Nepal, the Philippines and the United States – are barred from returning to Hong Kong till April 20. The closure of bars, nightclubs, gyms and hair salons has also been extended until April 20. The number of diners at each table is limited to two. There are reports that more and more expats are leaving Hong Kong due to the current pandemic situation and the compulsory testing of all inhabitants. Some flights have been suspended and the price of tickets has skyrocketed. There were 27,303 departures in the week ending February 20, a fifth more than the previous week and the highest weekly net outflow since the pandemic began. Most left from the airport, with the rest going via two crossings to mainland China. Cathay Pacific Airways’ website has only one flight to Singapore, on March 19, costing HKD4,181, while a flight to London can cost upwards of HKD23,000. There are also business owners inquiring to move business operations to Singapore or to create a subsidiary there.
The coronavirus is spreading in multiple regions on the Chinese mainland, with the coastal province of Guangdong facing a complicated situation, as 15 provincial-level regions had reported domestic cases in the past week. Wuhan, the Chinese city where the Covid-19 pandemic was first detected, registered a number of new cases, this time of the Omicron variant. 23 cases were found in three days, all linked to training sessions involving 66 employees of Nu Skin Enterprises – a U.S. skin-care company. Wuhan tested more than 720,000 residents to contain the latest outbreak. People leaving Wuhan also led to four cases being identified in Beijing after their arrival. Cases linked to Wuhan were also found in Qingdao and Shijiazhuang. The number has meanwhile increased. Beijing authorities have urged social organizations in the city to strictly control interprovincial meetings and training courses. “Online video participation is recommended,” Liu Xiaofeng, Deputy Director of the Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control, said.
A recent Covid-19 outbreak in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, will have a limited impact on the global supply of semiconductors as local companies start to resume operations, but there will still be delays in chip deliveries in the short term. Germany's Bosch told China Daily its Suzhou company is “working hard to resume production to reduce impact on customer supply”, after one of its staff was confirmed asymptomatic for Covid-19. Bosch Suzhou is one of the world’s largest manufacturing bases for the company. It produces automotive electronics, chassis systems controls, car multimedia and machinery. At Hejian Technology Corp and King Long Technology (Suzhou), the Chinese mainland units of two semiconductor firms from Taiwan, employees were confirmed to have tested positive. Both firms’ production was temporarily halted. Suzhou Industrial Park, where Bosch, Hejian and King Long are located, houses six of the top 10 chip packaging companies and 28 semiconductor equipment and material companies. More than 1,837 high-tech firms from home and abroad have set up branches there.
This overview is based on reports by the Guardian, China Daily, Global Times and South China Morning Post.
