Virus-hit HK invokes emergency powers to allow in China medics

Virus-hit HK invokes emergency powers to allow in China medics

HONG KONG: Hong Kong’s government invoked emergency powers yesterday to allow doctors, nurses and other personnel from the Chinese mainland to help combat a spiralling coronavirus outbreak. The densely populated metropolis is in the throes of its worst-ever COVID wave, registering thousands of cases every day, overwhelming hospitals and government efforts to isolate all infected people in dedicated units.

Hong Kong authorities have followed a zero-COVID strategy similar to mainland China that kept infections mostly at bay throughout the pandemic. But they were caught flat-footed when the highly infectious Omicron variant broke through those defences, and have since increasingly called on the Chinese mainland for help.

“Hong Kong is now facing a very dire epidemic situation which continues to deteriorate rapidly,” the government said in its statement announcing the use of emergency powers. Chinese mainland medics are not currently allowed to operate in Hong Kong without passing local exams and meeting licensing regulations.

The emergency powers “exempt certain persons or projects from all relevant statutory requirements… so as to increase Hong Kong’s epidemic control capacity for containing the fifth wave within a short period of time,” the statement said. The move came after Chinese President Xi Jinping last week ordered Hong Kong to