The global finance hub has stuck to a zero-Covid strategy by largely isolating itself from the world and enforcing a draconian and costly quarantine regime.
On Dec. 31, a streak of three months without community cases ended with the first local transmission of the new Omicron variant.
Since then, authorities have scrambled to track down and test hundreds of people who had been in contact with a handful of Omicron patients.
"The most stringent anti-epidemic measures will be implemented to prevent the mutant strains from spreading in the local community," the government said in a statement.
The latest hunt was sparked by a patient who danced with some 20 friends in a central park on New Year's Eve. Two of the fellow dancers, one of whom was a domestic helper, came up positive in preliminary tests.
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