Coronavirus Hong Kong: will the Omicron surge turn half-empty hotels into quarantine centres?
- Hong Kong has 12,500 rooms across 44 quarantine hotels until July 31, a mere 14 per cent of the 89,403 hotel rooms in the city, compared with a quarter in Singapore
- Ten hotels with 3,013 rooms in total ceased operating in the three years since 2019, according to the Hong Kong Tourism Board’s data
As Stacie Yang drew up plans to celebrate her 30th birthday due at the end of February, her options were quickly vanishing with Hong Kong’s explosive growth in Covid-19 cases.
Spa sessions, a karaoke rendezvous, and manicures were out, as city authorities shut close-contact services to contain the spread of the Omicron variant of the Covid-19 virus. Even dinners were out of the question as indoor dining was banned after 6pm.
Exasperated, Yang booked a deluxe room at the Rosewood Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui, with a view of the Victoria Harbour and Hong Kong island, where she invited four of her closest friends to spend an entire weekend in a staycation.
Two weeks before checking in however, Hong Kong authorities slapped a two-person limit on public gatherings, and banned members of more than two households from congregating in confined space. Luckily for Yang, she received a refund on her HK$5,000 (US$641) booking fee.
“We had a plan for the entire birthday weekend: watching films, singing, dancing, and playing games, but now all the planning is in vain,” said Yang. “I can never have my 30th birthday ever again. Such a pity.”
All across Hong Kong, Yang’s exasperation is being replayed multiple times in a myriad of versions, often with more dire – occasionally fatal – circumstances, as the city’s 7.5 million residents grapple with a disease that has infected about 40,000 people at the latest count after setting daily records for two straight weeks.
