HONG KONG - Hong Kong is on edge, bracing itself for a more infectious Omicron outbreak with the city’s leader tightening measures from Jan 7 and bringing back the days - the first time in almost a year - when dining in ends at 6pm, as well as shutting premises like gyms and nightclubs for two weeks.

Describing the situation as “very dire”, Chief Executive Carrie Lam on Wednesday (Jan 5) said that from Jan 7 to 20, all major events will be cancelled and there must be no unnecessary gatherings such as an upcoming local farm festival and a local cycling event.

Dining-in services will end at 6pm, with the number of patrons at a table halved to between two and six for the different tiers of eateries in the city.

More than a dozen types of venues such as karaoke outlets, bars, pubs, cinemas, game arcades, beauty parlours, gyms, museums, entertainment venues, nightclubs and sports centres will be suspended.

“We are on the brink of a major outbreak,” warned Mrs Lam. “We are on a race against time to stop the Omicron variant from spreading in the community.”

Mrs Lam, who said her decision is the most “rapid and targeted” in the past couple of years, noted that the government is still unsure of the number of infection chains and how the virus is being.

What is certain however, is the rise in the number of imported cases in recent days.
“The surge of imported cases was already serious in the past four weeks. They doubled each week. Four weeks ago we only had 20 cases and this week as at Jan 3, we had 123 cases,” said Mrs Lam.

She added that Hong Kong had 36 imported cases on Tuesday (Jan 4) alone.
“The increase is drastic and causing a strain on our public hospitals,” the leader stressed. 

So, from Jan 8 to 21, inbound flights from eight countries will be suspended. They are: the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, France, India, the Philippines, Pakistan and Canada.

Mrs Lam said the measures will be reviewed a week from when it starts.

The announcement comes as government medical advisers called on measures to be tightened immediately, warning that the fifth wave of Covid-19 outbreaks could have started as there could be up to 10 silent transmission chains.

Officials on Tuesday (Jan 4) reported the first unknown case in almost three months. The confirmed case is a Tuen Mun resident who was likely to have contracted Omicron.

The 42-year-old surveyor was on the way to work when he passed by Victoria Park where he saw people dancing some 20 metres away.

The related dance cluster triggered a hunt for contacts of a 62-year-old unvaccinated woman who got the virus from her 28-year-old Cathay Pacific flight attendant daughter.

The senior had danced with about 20 friends at Victoria Park on New Year’s Eve.

Health authorities on Wednesday said the woman might have infected one of her friends in the dance group, another friend she had breakfast with, and a helper she had met.

The helper is one of two of the dancing group tested preliminary positive.

The helper’s employer and eight other close contacts then went on a cruise on Jan 2.

Health authorities on Wednesday had to order the Royal Caribbean cruise-to-nowhere ship carrying 3,700 people to return to the port ahead of schedule for tests. All nine tested negative.

Epidemiologist Gabriel Leung from the University of Hong Kong, who spoke on a broadcaster RTHK programme earlier on Wednesday, said he thinks there could already be multiple ‘silent transmission chains’ in the community.

“There’s no time to waste. I think we need circuit-breaker measures and we have to be heavy-handed at the beginning when it comes to tightening social distancing measures. Otherwise we would be allowing the five to 10 silent transmission chains to grow,” he said.

Authorities have named more than 60 locations in a compulsory testing notice, including M+ museum, Victoria Park and Central Pier No.5. M+ alone sees more than 10,000 visitors daily.

On Wednesday, health authorities said Hong Kong added 38 cases, of which 31 could be Omicron and another 20 preliminary positive cases. 

This brings the total number of confirmed cases in Hong Kong to more than 12,700 cases and 213 deaths since the pandemic started.