Hong Kong's hospitals reached 90% capacity on Thursday and quarantine facilities were at their limit, authorities said, as the city struggles to snuff out a record number of new cases by adhering to China's "zero tolerance" strategy.
To ease the strain on the city's healthcare system, officials said they would take a different approach to hospitalization 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.
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.
Under the new approach, people who are infected with Covid-19 but present mild symptoms in hospitals and government-run isolation facilities will be allowed to leave after just seven days if they test negative on the seventh day and do not live with anyone in a high-risk group, such as senior citizens, pregnant women or immunosuppressed people.
Those who do not meet these criteria must complete the full 14-day isolation period or wait until they test negative, according to health officials.