the times | Wednesday February 16 2022 15News
A senior member of the Hong Kong
government has tested positive for the
coronavirus as the territory struggles to
control a wave of infections caused by
the Omicron variant.
Hospital beds are filling fast and the
government is seeking urgent help
from the mainland with testing and
medical supplies. Hong Kong recorded
another 1,619 new infections yesterday
after Monday’s record high of 2,071.
“Given the magnitude, pace and se-
verity of this fifth wave, it has outgrown
our capacity,” Carrie Lam, the chief
executive, said.
Lam has not come into contact with
the staff member in her office who has
tested positive but John Lee, the city’s
second most senior official, is isolating
after a domestic helper tested positive.
Hong Kong, like China, is one of the
few remaining states to be pursuing a
“dynamic zero” approach to the pan-
demic, but has been changing its poli-
cies to cope with the new wave. Last
week the government stopped sending
all diagnosed cases to hospital for
isolation, allowing people with mild or
asymptomatic cases to stay in a
separate facility.
New social housing will be repur-
posed to accommodate more than
3,000 people in quarantine, along with
10,000 hotel rooms, Lam said. The
hotels have not yet been identified but
Lam warned that she could use emer-
gency powers to make them comply.
Lam has stressed that there is no plan
for a city-wide lockdown in response to
Omicron. “We will continue to fight
this anti-pandemic fight,” she said. “It is
not an option to surrender to the virus.”
She added that 100 million rapid test
kits would be given out, starting with
care homes, to address a backlog of
PCR tests created by mandatory testing
orders under which hundreds of
thousands of residents have queued for
hours.
Public health officials have said that
they will prioritise hospital beds for theHong Kong seeks aid
as draconian rules fail
to contain Omicron
Didi Tang Beijing elderly, children and those suffering
with severe symptoms. On Monday the
education authority suspended face-
to-face classes, and children as young
as three are now eligible for the Chinese
Sinovac vaccine.
Honk Kong has recorded ten deaths
since last week but it is not clear whe-
ther they were related to the Omicron
variant. Until these cases there had
been no coronavirus deaths in Hong
Kong since September.
Research by the medical school at
the University of Hong Kong has sug-
gested that there may be more than 950
deaths before the end of June if the
Covid restrictions are maintained as
they are now.
So far, the draconian response in
Hong Kong has been extremely effec-
tive. Since the pandemic began at the
start of 2020, the city has recorded a rel-
atively low 223 deaths.
A rare protest against the strict meas-
ures took place yesterday when one of
Hong Kong’s few remaining active pro-
democracy parties, the League of
Social Democrats (LSD), staged a small
event outside the central government
offices.
Chan Po-ying, the group’s chairwom-
an, said that the territory had paid too
high a price for sticking to the “dynamic
zero” strategy and that achieving zero
infections was not practical. The LSD
said that the government’s relief meas-
ures were focused on “saving the
market instead of saving the people”.
For the first time a HK$10,000 (£947)
subsidy will be provided to workers in
certain sectors and to unemployed
people who meet certain criteria, but
Chan said that the amount was not
sufficient to ease the financial burden
of the poor.
“Medical experts globally recognise
that vaccines cannot prevent infec-
tions, but are effective at reducing the
severity of symptoms,” she said, adding
that, given the high transmission rate of
the Omicron variant, there would still
be Covid outbreaks even if vaccination
rates increased.Fully vaccinated people are much less
likely to suffer symptoms of long Covid
than those who have not been jabbed, a
study has found.
Experts concluded that double
vaccination provides a high level of
protection against the condition, which
is thought to have affected more than a
million Britons and can cause fatigue,
shortness of breath and muscle or joint
pain.
The UK Health Security Agency
(UKHSA) examined 15 studies that
studied the effects of vaccination on
long Covid. Their analysis found that
those who had been infected after
receiving two doses of the Pfizer, Astra-
Zeneca or Moderna vaccines were
about half as likely as people who re-
ceived one dose or were unvaccinated
to develop long Covid symptoms last-
ing more than 28 days. One dose of the
Janssen vaccine provided the same
benefit.
The UKHSA found that vaccine
effectiveness against long Covid in
adults was highest in people aged 60
and older, and lowest for those aged 19
to 35.
The researchers also found that
people who received a vaccination after
being infected reported that the dura-News
he insists: I’m not an antivaxer
the nation fights a fifth wave. It announced record infections on Monday and has appealed to the mainland for urgent helpWorld update
Global cases
413,483,Global deaths
5,826,Countries reporting most deathsMost new casesUS
Brazil
India
Russia
Mexico
Peru
UK
Italy1 2 3 4 5 6 7 81 2 3 4 5 6 711US
Russia
Germany
Turkey
Spain
Japan
Brazil
UKDeaths per million population
Rank Now Jan 31, 2021179,
178,
174,
76,
68,
60,
59,922,
639,
509,
334,
312,
208,151,159,Data supplied by Johns Hopkins University. US data fluctuates because of irregular reporting by different states. Figures as of 6pm
yesterday. Sources: UK government, Our World in Data, selected countries46,6,
4,
4,4,
4,3,
3,3,
3,
3,3,
2,2,
2,Peru
BulgariaBosnia & Herz.
Hungary
N. MacedoniaGeorgia
CroatiaCzech Rep
SlovakiaRomania
Brazil
PolandUS
UK1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 910
1114
15281,
1,1,
1,
1,797
1,1,
836949
1,
982.1,
1,(16)
(13)(7)
(14)
(10)(40)
(17)(5)
(37)(31)
(24)
(29)(11)
(4)MIGUEL CANDELA/EPAFully jabbed less prone to long Covid
Katie Gibbons tion of post-Covid symptoms was
shorter compared with those who were
unvaccinated.
Dr Mary Ramsay, head of immunisa-
tion at the UKHSA, said: “These stud-
ies add to the potential benefits of re-
ceiving a full course of the coronavirus
vaccination. [It] is the best way to pro-
tect yourself from serious symptoms
when you get infected and may also
help to reduce the longer-term impact.
“For most people symptoms of long
Covid are short-lived. But for some,
symptoms can be more severe and dis-
rupting to their daily lives.”
Figures from the Office for National
Statistics (ONS) suggest that 1.33 mil-
lion people, about one in 48, are likely to
have symptoms of long Covid, includ-
ing more than half a million who first
had Covid-19, or suspected they had the
virus, at least a year ago.
Registered deaths involving corona-
virus in England have fallen for the
second week in a row. A total of 1,
deaths registered in England and Wales
in the week ending February 4
mentioned Covid-19 on the death
certificate, according to the ONS, down
10 per cent on the previous seven days.
About one in ten deaths registered in
England and Wales in the week to
February 4 mentioned Covid-19 on the
death certificate.Hormone therapy could help to
prevent older women dying from
Covid-19, a study has suggested.
Researchers at the University of
Umea in Sweden and Helsinki
University studied the records of
14,685 women aged from 50 to 80
who contracted coronavirus from
February to September 2020.
They found that women taking
hormone replacement therapy
used to relieve menopause
symptoms were 54 per cent less
likely to die from the virus than
those not taking oestrogen.
Women with breast cancer taking
drugs to suppress oestrogen had
more than double the risk of death
from Covid, the observational
study, published in the BMJ, found.
However, experts said caution
should be taken when thinking of
HRT’s benefits in relation to
Covid-19.HRT may cut
virus deaths
Katie Gibbons