HONG KONG: Hong Kong will test its entire population of 7.5 million people for Covid-19 in March, the city’s leader said on Tuesday, as it grapples with its worst outbreak driven by the omicron variant.

The population will be tested three times in March, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam said.

She said testing capacity will be boosted to 1 million a day or more.

Since we have a population of some 7 million people, testing will take about seven days, she said.

EU countries agree to accept travellers with WHO-approved shots

Hong Kong has reported about 5,000 new daily infections since Feb 15, with the cases threatening to overwhelm its healthcare system. Since the current surge began at the beginning of the year, the city has recorded nearly 54,000 cases and 145 deaths.

The order for citywide testing comes after mainland Chinese authorities dispatched epidemiologists, health workers and other medical resources last week to help contain the outbreak in the semi-autonomous Chinese city.

Hong Kong has largely aligned itself with mainland Chinas zero-Covid-19 policy, which aims to totally stamp out outbreaks, even as many other countries are shifting their approach to living with the virus.

Lockdowns of entire cities have been imposed in a number of areas of the mainland, but Lam said no such measure is currently being considered in Hong Kong because it is not realistic.

Meanwhile, European Union countries agreed on Tuesday to open their borders to travellers from outside the bloc who have had shots against Covid-19 authorised by the World Health Organisation, easing restrictions on those who received Indian and Chinese vaccines.

The EU has so far authorised vaccines produced by Pfizer-BionTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca (when produced in Europe), Johnson & Johnson and Novavax. In addition to these shots, the WHO has also approved the vaccines produced by Chinese makers Sinopharm and Sinovac and by Indian company Bharat Biotech. It has also authorised the AstraZeneca vaccine made in India by the Serum Institute.

Until now, most EU countries have not admitted people from outside the bloc travelling for non-essential reasons if they have been vaccinated with shots not approved in the EU.

“Member states should lift the temporary restriction on non-essential travel to the EU for persons vaccinated with an EU- or WHO-approved vaccine,” said a recommendation adopted on Tuesday by EU governments which would be applicable from March 1.

Restrictions will be lifted for travellers who received the final dose of the primary vaccination cycle at least 14 days and no more than 270 days before arrival. Boosted travellers will also be accepted.

Published in Dawn, February 23rd, 2022