It’s not a matter of Hong Kong fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, but of the COVID-19 coronavirus and its army of variants fighting Hong Kong. And so far, it’s winning.

After several months of being COVID-free of local infections last summer, suddenly the omicron variant hit Hong Kong with the fury of a bushfire. The fifth wave of the outbreak was here, stretching local hospitals and medical facilities to the hilt. Hong Kong was in dire straits.

Because of hospital bed shortages, Hong Kong was unable to meet demand, stricken patients were coming in by tens, then hundreds and finally tens of hundreds on a daily basis had to lie on gurneys outside the hospitals waiting for entry. The death toll rose, mainly among the elderly, especially among those living in care homes. The figures were staggering.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor announced the virus peaked at 52,523 daily cases on March 3 and from then on it slowly decreased to current levels of about 20,000 a day. Mortality rates are still high with about 200 a day, most among the unvaccinated elderly with chronic illnesses. Interestingly, researchers found that it was not that the elderly who did not want to be vaccinated, but it was their kin, sons and daughters who were against the jab for fear of losing their loved ones. Sod’s law.

Rumors ran amok when Mrs Lam hinted she was going to introduce a citywide lockdown for door-to-door testing. Within hours, grocery stores and markets were stripped of food supplies and household commodities. The shortages lasted about two weeks.

Very strict anti-pandemic measures were in place in Hong Kong in an attempt to achieve “dynamic zero infection”, a policy strictly implemented on the Chinese mainland. But according to leading epidemiologist Dr Ben Cowling, the “zero COVID” measures would not eventually stop the virus from getting in; they would only postpone it.

“In Hong Kong, we won’t be able to stop an outbreak once it gets established, and that’s exactly what’s happened now,” said Dr Cowling, chair professor of epidemiology at the University of Hong Kong School of Public Health.

The plight in Hong Kong did not go unnoticed in Beijing, and President Xi Jingjing immediately mobilized the entire country to help the little jewel in the south. Xi directed Vice-Premier Han Zheng to express to Lam the concerns that Communist Party of China leaders have about the city’s ongoing outbreak.

Han has called on the Hong Kong SAR government to earnestly assume the main responsibility and regard the rapid stabilization and control of the pandemic as the current overriding task.

China’s central government agencies and neighboring Guangdong province have been providing Hong Kong with various resources to fight the new outbreak, including rapid antigen tests, medical expertise and supplies, after Xi issued his instructions.

The private sector did not hesitate to answer the call of President Xi. China Resources Group, for example, has donated 1,000 hospital beds to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government through the China Resources Charity Fund to alleviate the shortage of medical resources. The beds arrived in Hong Kong in two batches by ship and cross-border vehicles and placed in various makeshift hospitals in sports centers and community halls. 

The construction of the first makeshift hospital to treat COVID-19 patients in Hong Kong started on Feb 27 with the support of the central government after a temporary bridge linking Lok Ma Chau Loop and Shenzhen was completed. The hospital was completed within a week and involved some 200 construction managers and 1,700 workers from China State Construction International Holdings. This was followed up with more “instant” hospitals in nine other locations in Hong Kong, to provide a total of 50,000 beds and significantly increase Hong Kong's COVID-19 infection cases' isolation capacity.

Hong Kong’s tired but dedicated medical fraternity is being boosted with 1,000 medical professionals from the Chinese mainland. The team is being led by Professor Yu Tao from the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital in Guangzhou, who described his colleagues as “the best and strongest soldiers” chosen from 14 medical units in the Guangdong provincial capital, plus Shenzhen, Foshan and Zhuhai.

Donations have also been flowing in from the private sector. For example, tech giant Tencent has donated a total of HK$50 million ($6.4 million) through its foundation; Alibaba has donated HK$10 million in its first phase through its foundation to support the anti-pandemic work; Tmall Hong Kong is providing logistics subsidies to ensure the stability of supplies and prices of anti-pandemic goods; the Xiaomi Foundation has donated HK$5 million for the procurement of anti-pandemic materials; and Ant Group has donated HK$10 million through its foundation. JD also announced that it will donate about HK$15 million of anti-pandemic materials to Hong Kong’s medical staff, and the company said as long as Hong Kong needs to fight the pandemic, it will provide support at any time.

The author, a former chief information officer with the Hong Kong government, is a public relations and media consultant and a veteran journalist.