Omicron variant: how long can Hong Kong maintain tough quarantine rules amid global wave? Experts warn current approach unsustainable

Hong Kong’s tough new rule requiring arrivals from Omicron-hit countries to spend their first week of quarantine in a government camp will not be sustainable for much longer, health experts have warned, as the heavily mutated coronavirus variant continues to spread across the globe at an unprecedented rate.

Cases of the highly transmissible variant had been confirmed in at least 77 countries as of Wednesday, the same day Britain scrapped its stepped-up entry restrictions on 11 African nations after admitting the rules served little purpose with Omicron already circulating at home.