And suddenly, there it was right on our doorstep. The dreaded Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus was in Hong Kong delivered courtesy of two Cathay Pacific stewards.
The outbreak in Hong Kong of the Omicron virus comes from the selfishness of the two airline cabin stewards who flouted the relaxed regulations on airline crews by breaking the quarantine rules. As a result, billions of dollars are being lost in the catering trade and aviation industry by new government-imposed restrictions and the festivities by the local population for the Lunar New Year are being threatened. Also, their colleagues can no longer enjoy three days quarantine at home but will now be allocated to specific hotels where they can be monitored.
A 44-year-old cabin crew member flouted home quarantine rules by dining with family and friends at a restaurant in Festival Walk, Kowloon Tong. And due to poor ventilation, the virus spread to others in the restaurant. The other steward also broke the rules by visiting a bar in Central.
Immediately, military-style tactics came into play. Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor was furious and gave Cathay Pacific executives a dressing down for allowing their staff to bring the virus into the special administrative region. The executives quickly canceled 17 passenger flights and five cargo flights and sacked two staff members for breaking the rules. The COVID task force descended onto the restaurant, identified the faulty air ventilation and located all suspected contacts.
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The Financial Times reported that Hong Kong had imposed some of the world’s most stringent pandemic controls under its “zero-COVID” strategy, with most arrivals subject to up to 21 days’ quarantine and non-residents from more than 120 countries banned from entering the city.
The outbreak in Hong Kong of the Omicron virus comes from the selfishness of the two airline cabin stewards who flouted the relaxed regulations on airline crews by breaking the quarantine rules
All flights from high-risk countries such as Australia, Canada, France, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, the UK and the US have been prohibited from landing in Hong Kong until after the Lunar New Year.
Hong Kong has gone into complete lockdown to claw back its zero-COVID status. All bars, restaurants and places of entertainment must close from 6 pm until 6 am. Restaurants alone are expected to suffer HK$4 billion ($513 million) losses due to the restrictions, according to catering sector lawmaker Tommy Cheung Yu-yan. The wearing of face masks is mandatory, and all local tours and major events (including wedding receptions) have been canceled.
Super-cruiser Spectrum of the Seas with 3,700 people on board was recalled from a popular cruise to nowhere when nine people were quarantined. Its owner, Royal Caribbean Cruises has canceled all sailing for the rest of the month while competing cruise liner Genting Dream has canceled sailings for two weeks.
But once in, it is hard to stop, and it quickly spread throughout the city. Within days it had reached double digits daily.
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However, the Lunar New Year festivities loom on Feb 1 when people in Hong Kong and other cities throughout China flock to restaurants to celebrate Spring Festival with family and friends. Cheung estimates diners will spend about $1.3 billion on food and drinks during the week-long festivities. But whether that will come about remains to be seen.
The greatest threat to Hong Kong, however, is to its plan of opening boundary controls with the Chinese mainland. As Hong Kong had reported zero local infections for many months, the time was ripe to negotiate with mainland officials about the reopening of boundary crossings. The business community, both domestic and international, had complained bitterly that the boundary closures were harming trade and begged for the restrictions to be lifted.
The negotiations were going well, so much so that a team of mainland health officials inspected anti-pandemic measures at the airport, the contact tracing center at Kai Shek, and the Hospital Authority’s North Lantau Hospital Hong Kong Infection Control Centre. Like Hong Kong, the mainland maintained a zero-COVID policy.
The plan was to open the boundary gates before the Lunar New Year for traditional family reunions. This plan may now be in jeopardy.
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Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee is confident it can be contained in a few weeks and Hong Kong can return to zero COVID. Others are not so sure. Government expert adviser, Professor Ivan Hung Fan-ngai of the University of Hong Kong’s Department of Medicine, said the prospects of a fifth wave of the outbreak in Hong Kong depend on whether more unlinked cases emerge.
His views were echoed by WHO emergency officer Catherine Smallwood, who sounded an ominous note of caution, saying the soaring infection rates could have the opposite effect.
“The more omicron spreads, the more it transmits and the more it replicates, the more likely it is to throw out a new variant. Now, omicron is lethal, it can cause death … maybe a little bit less than Delta, but who’s to say what the next variant might throw out,” she warned.
The author is a former chief information officer of the Hong Kong government, a media & PR consultant and veteran journalist.