Hong Kong's government invoked emergency powers to allow doctors and nurses from the Chinese mainland to work in the territory to help combat a spiralling coronavirus outbreak.
The densely populated metropolis is in the throes of its worst-ever COVID wave, registering thousands of cases every day, overwhelming hospitals and government efforts to isolate all infected people in dedicated units.
Hong Kong authorities have followed a zero-COVID strategy similar to mainland China that had kept infections mostly at bay throughout the pandemic.
A taxi driver in full PPE pulls out of a COVID-19 clinic in Shau Kei Wan, Hong Kong. Credit: AAP
But they were caught flat-footed when the highly infectious Omicron variant broke through those defences, and have since increasingly called on the Chinese mainland for help.
"Hong Kong is now facing a very dire epidemic situation which continues to deteriorate rapidly," the government said in its statement announcing the use of emergency powers.
Chinese mainland medics are not currently allowed to operate in Hong Kong without passing local exams and licensing regulations.
The emergency powers "exempt certain persons or projects from all relevant statutory requirements... so as to increase Hong Kong's epidemic control capacity for containing the fifth wave within a short period of time," the statement said.
The move came after Chinese President Xi Jinping last week ordered Hong Kong to take "any necessary means" to bring the outbreak under control, signalling Hong Kong would not be allowed to move towards living with the virus like much of the rest of the world.
Allowing Chinese mainland medics to work in Hong Kong has been a source of debate for years.
Even before the pandemic, supporters argued it could alleviate shortages in the city's over-stretched healthcare system.
Local medical practitioners in the past have objected, citing issues such as language and cultural barriers – though critics have dismissed such talk as protectionism.
Hong Kong was supposed to operate as a semi-autonomous region from China, after the territory returned from British colonial rule in 1997.
But that autonomy was eroded in recent years as China crushed a democracy movement.
Manpower 'exhausted'
Hong Kong has recorded more than 62,000 COVID cases in the current wave, compared with just 12,000 during the two years before.
Health experts fear the real number is far higher because of a testing backlog and people avoiding testing for fear of being forced into isolation units if they are positive.
Around 1,200 healthcare workers have been infected as of Wednesday, according to the Hospital Authority.
Hospital Authority chairman Henry Fan told state media on Monday that he hoped the mainland government would send over doctors and nurses, because local manpower had been "exhausted".
Hong Kong has ordered all 7.4 million residents to go through three rounds of mandatory coronavirus testing next month.
China is helping to build a series of isolation units and temporary hospital wards but it is unclear whether enough can be constructed.
Local modelling predicts the city might see as many as 180,000 infections and 100 deaths daily by mid-March.
China is increasingly ruling Hong Kong by fiat.
In the last two years a sweeping national security law and a political restructure were imposed on the city by Beijing's top law-making body in response to huge democracy protests.
Local authorities have also increasingly resorted to emergency orders.
During the 2019 protests, authorities used such powers to ban mask wearing.
The following year, emergency orders were used to make mask wearing mandatory during the pandemic.
The city's disease prevention law has also been invoked to forbid public gatherings and a host of strict social distancing measures and business closure orders that have been in place on and off for two years.
Last week, chief executive Carrie Lam also invoked emergency powers to delay the selection of the city's next leader, citing the pandemic.
