Overrun Hong Kong hospitals forced to leave Covid patients on beds in car parks

Covid patients being forced to wait outside hospitals as the city battles the surging Omicron cases.Hong Kong has seen its highest daily toll of infections recorded – 6,600 cases on Friday (February 18) – since the beginning of the pandemic.The global city's insane "Covid zero" plan backfired when the government failed to keep the cases at bay despite closing its border to the world and maintaining a hellish 21-day quarantine for returning travellers.Videos shared on a local Facebook group show patients waiting on stretchers outside Caritas Hospital in Kowloon as ambulances pulled up at the kerb.Doctors and nurses, all covered in protective gear, are seen going back and forth to the A&E department to tend for the patients.In another video posted by local resident Po Sang, dozens of residents queue up around a block for a Covid rapid test.The mass queue has seen members of the public waiting for up to two hours to get tested.About 11 public hospitals are working beyond capacity, with a waiting time of up to eight hours at emergency rooms. For more stories from the Daily Star, sign up to one of our newsletters here.According to reports, hospital beds were already at 90% capacity and due to a policy which saw every positive case hospitalised regardless of symptoms.People who came in close contacts were also required to isolate offsite in government facilities.While the rest of the world is starting to open up, Hong Kong is being swamped by an avalanche of new cases.Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said on Tuesday that some 100 million rapid test kits had been procured, according to South China Morning Post.She also announced to push back next month’s chief executive elections and postponed it to May 8, saying the.