Residents fear Chinese visitors no longer required to quarantine will arrive with variants as well as cash to revive tourism, retail and restaurant sectors
The new Omicron variant of the coronavirus could be more contagious than the prevalent Delta strain, judging by a “surprisingly distant” transmission in a Hong Kong hotel, a top microbiologist warned on Wednesday, as a transit passenger who spent days at the airport became the city’s fourth case. Medical experts from the University of Hong Kong also urged the public.
Health experts have suggested selling millions of Hong Kong's unused Covid-19 vaccines or pausing the phased supply from manufacturers to minimise waste, as the government explores donating the shots while racing against looming expiry dates. Nearly 4 million jabs from Chinese producer Sinovac and Germany's BioNTech have arrived in the city since February, but about 2 million of them are still languishing in storage amid a sluggish inoculation.