Hong Kong hotel quarantine criticised after Omicron outbreak

With the emergence of Omicron, Hong Kong has culled hamsters, put young children and senior government officials in quarantine camp, and banned flights from eight places to slow its spread.

HONG KONG (Bloomberg): Hong Kong’s onerous system of hotel quarantine for travellers was meant to stop infection from seeping into a largely virus-free city. Instead, it’s become a spreading ground, seeding an Omicron outbreak that’s led to thousands of people being locked down and calls for reform of the controversial setup.

An outbreak at a public housing estate of over 200 confirmed and preliminarily positive cases on Monday has been traced to a traveller who caught Omicron while undergoing 21 days of isolation at a hotel in Kowloon. While she entered the hotel Covid-free, the pathogen was transmitted to her from an infected person staying at the same hotel.