HONG KONG: Chinese leader Xi Jinping has called for Hong Kong to take “all necessary measures” to control an Omicron-fuelled Covid-19 outbreak, Beijing-affiliated newspapers in the city said Wednesday, a day after leader Carrie Lam ruled out a China-style hard lockdown.

Hong Kong is currently in the throes of its worst-ever coronavirus outbreak, registering over a thousand confirmed cases a day as hospitals reach their breaking point.

Lam this week insisted a hard “wholesale” lockdown — which the mainland has imposed on various cities in order to stamp out cases — will not be imposed on Hong Kongers.

By Wednesday, local newspapers Ta Kung Pao and Wen Wei Po — which answer to Beijing’s office in the city — reported Xi had called on authorities to “implement every necessary measure to ensure the protection” of public health.

Hong Kong needs “to prioritise stabilising and controlling the Covid situation above everything else”, the papers reported China’s leader as saying.

Comments

Comments are closed.