More than two dozen Hong Kong officials have been ordered to quarantine due to possible COVID-19 exposure, as a scandal widened over a large birthday party they attended despite the government’s own pandemic warnings.
All of the approximate 100 guests at a celebration thrown for a representative of a mainland Chinese agency were being sent to the quarantine camp in Penny’s Bay, local media reported Friday. Some of Hong Kong’s most senior politicians — along with more than 20% of its new "patriots-only” legislature — will be confined to 20-square-meter rooms with no wifi access, just as the government fights an outbreak of the infectious omicron variant.
Those in quarantine include Financial Services Secretary Christopher Hui, Police Chief Raymond Siu, Immigration Director Au Ka-wang, Home Affairs Secretary Caspar Tsui and Independent Commission Against Corruption Commissioner Simon Peh.