Growing cluster of Covid-19 infections tied to Hong Kong restaurant could delay launch of mainland China travel scheme
- Woman who dined at Moon Palace where Omicron cluster has emerged is listed as suspected Covid-19 case
- Cathay Pacific sacks two workers for flouting isolation orders, while another airline employee who stayed in two places during quarantine triggers lockdown orders
As residents wearily crossed into their third year of living with the pandemic, the costly but effective defences keeping the virus largely at bay were now at risk of being overrun by the highly transmissible variant.
Nearly all of Hong Kong’s 95 Omicron infections have originated from overseas, but the city on Saturday confirmed its first local cases, involving two people who ate at the Moon Palace restaurant at the Festival Walk mall in Kowloon Tong.
While the outbreak tied to Moon Palace remains small, it posed enough of a health threat to possibly delay the launch of the travel scheme allowing residents to travel to Guangdong province without undergoing quarantine.
Tam Yiu-chung, the city’s sole delegate to China’s top legislative body, said it was uncertain whether the programme would begin by Lunar New Year in February as intended.
“The recent transmission in the [Hong Kong] community is worrying,” he said. “If there are local cases in Hong Kong, how can we demand for the border reopening?”
