Hong Kong’s hospitals reached have reached 90 per cent capacity and quarantine facilities are at their limit, authorities said, as the city struggles to snuff out a record number of new Covid-19 cases by adhering to China’s “zero tolerance” strategy.

To ease the strain on the city’s healthcare system, officials said they will take a different approach to hospitalisation and isolation policies and allow some patients to be discharged sooner. The move comes amid reports of patients being treated on beds outside a hospital in the city’s working-class neighbourhood of Sham Shui Po, AP reported.

Hong Kong reported 6,116 new coronavirus infections on Thursday. Any person in the city who is infected with Covid-19 must be admitted to a hospital or community isolation facility.