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Hong Kong Covid crisis

Posted on 21 March 2022

Omicron is tearing through densely populated Hong Kong, with hospitals and mortuaries being overloaded. Over 5,000 deaths and more than 1 million cases have been reported among its population of 7.5 million. 3,000 of the deaths were recorded in the past few months.
 
Siddharth Sridhar, a clinical virologist at the department of microbiology of the University of Hong Kong, has called it a “perfect storm” of low vaccination rates among elderly people, low rates of prior infection likely leading to further vaccine hesitancy, and an overwhelmed healthcare system.
 
He said: “Although Omicron caused sharp surges in cases across the globe, Hong Kong stands out grimly for its Covid-19 death rate.”