patients on the street and the health system in collapse- breaking latest news

It is on alert in Hong Kong, where for the first time since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic it exceeded two thousand infections, stopping at 2,071, the highest number ever recorded in a single day. The Chinese city has also decided to extend the suspension of face-to-face lessons until 7 March to counter the wave of infections, the budget of which appears destined to worsen if we consider that 4,500 people were preliminarily positive for Covid-19.

Several witnesses and media including Bloomberg report news and images of patients being treated on the street. About a dozen seniors, wrapped in blankets, were forced to wait on hospital beds outside the Caritas Medical Center in Sham Shui Po, one of the poorest districts in the city, on Wednesday.. Another group of people, including small children, sat in blue isolation tents across the street waiting to be evaluated by medical staff.

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The local health authorities have also decided to make the vaccine produced by the Chinese group Sinovac also available for three-year-old children starting tomorrow, while from Wednesday it will be possible to vaccinate children of at least five years with the serum developed by BioNTech, to combat the transmission of the virus among the youngest. According to the findings of the Center for Health Protection of the Chinese city, about 4% of the patients in the current wave of infections, the fifth, are no older than four years. To stem the current wave of Omicron variant infections “as soon as possible”, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam has set up five task forces who will act in coordination with representatives of the Chinese central government, to which he expressed “sincere gratitude”, and with the authorities of Guangdong, the south-eastern Chinese province bordering Hong Kong. “The fifth wave of the outbreak hit Hong Kong hard and overwhelmed the city’s ability to manage it,” Lam added in a statement. “The situation is highly undesirable and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government feels concerned and sorry about it.”

Chinese leader Xi Jinping has ordered the Hong Kong government to control the epidemic spiral of Covid-19 that has engulfed the city’s health system, highlighting Beijing’s growing concerns about the crisis and increasing the likelihood of even stricter restrictions on ‘global financial hub. Xi conveyed this directive in articles that appeared in the city’s two main state newspapers, in which he said that Hong Kong’s control of the epidemic is the “priority task at the moment” and that it is the responsibility of local officials to keep tabs on the ‘epidemic. The central government would also take action to alleviate shortages of food and other supplies, as well as help build treatment and isolation centers, Xi said.. Hong Kong officials crossed the border to Shenzhen over the weekend to talk about plans to help the city comply with zero-Covid policies that are now caving in under the fifth wave of infections. Xi’s unusually direct order would suggest that Hong Kong officials have no choice but to adhere strictly to China’s zero tolerance policy.