Mainland help sought in Hong Kong outbreak

Hong Kong reported 106 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday－the seventh straight day that new infections topped 100－a situation that residents and a local expert said requires urgent assistance from the central government.

The daily count included eight imported cases and 98 local cases, more than half of unknown origin, raising the city's tally to 2,884. The special administrative region's Centre for Health Protection also said about 85 other people preliminarily tested positive and were awaiting confirmation.

The city also recorded its 23rd COVID-related death on Tuesday－an 85-year-old man.

Thirty-six of the new patients were found to have contracted the virus after gatherings with family members and friends. The figure came a day before the city's toughest anti-epidemic rules to date took effect on Wednesday, including the banning of dining at restaurants and public gatherings of more than two people.

As of noon on Tuesday, 1,099 COVID patients, including 39 in critical condition, remained hospitalized, straining the occupancy rate of isolation beds, at a record high of 79 percent.

The central government recently pledged to provide "all necessary support at any time" to the city in its battle against a coronavirus resurgence. Mainland authorities are expected to help sweepingly improve the city's testing capacity and set up a temporary hospital with 2,000 beds.

Joseph Tsang Kay-yan, a local specialist in infectious diseases, said Hong Kong urgently needs help in bolstering its medical equipment, as mass virus tests and adequate quarantine and treatment facilities are essential for quelling the outbreak.

Those are not needed only for now, but also for a possible fourth and fifth wave of outbreaks in winter, Tsang said. He added that building a temporary hospital would be wise because the city has tended to overestimate the capacity of its public health system.

Business executive Alex Chen Fok-ming, 47, welcoming central government help, said: "The Chinese mainland is our motherland, not a tiger. Don't be afraid of them helping us out, especially when they are more experienced. The best thing to do now is collaborate with the mainland, to test as many residents as possible, and find those asymptomatic patients and send them to the temporary hospital," Chen said.