Hong Kong is at a COVID-19 tipping point.
The once-vibrant gateway to China sacrificed its status as an international hub to ¡°COVID zero,¡± its strategy for eliminating the virus by isolating itself from a world awash in the pathogen. It worked for nearly a year, keeping residents safe and largely unfettered while raising the tantalizing possibility of reopening the border with China, the city¡¯s economic lifeblood.
Now it¡¯s living with the worst of both worlds, after a couple of imported infections caused by the highly transmissible omicron variant started spreading in the under-vaccinated city, triggering renewed curbs. Residents can no longer go to the gym or the cinema, and the once-ubiquitous banquets where people gathered to celebrate Chinese New Year were canceled for another year.
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