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Across Asia, spike in virus cases follows Lunar New Year

SINGAPORE (AP) - Many Asian countries are facing a spike in COVID-19 infections after the widely celebrated Lunar New Year holidays, as health officials grapple with the highly transmissible omicron variant and expectations that numbers will continue to rise in coming weeks.

The Lunar New Year, which is China’s biggest holiday, was celebrated across Asia on Feb. 1 even as pandemic restrictions in many countries kept crowds and family outings to a minimum.

Hong Kong’s authorities are confronting record cases that are straining its so-called “zero-COVID” policy.

On Monday, the city reported a new high of 614 local infections.

“We expect there will be more cases coming in a few days. We consider this as some effects after the holiday events and clusters,” told reporters on Monday Edwin Tsui, an official with the Centre for Health Protection.

“With our current containment measures, we hope we can still contain the disease.”

Hong Kong currently requires all cases to be hospitalized. On Monday, authorities announced that close contacts of infected persons will be allowed to isolate at home, starting from Tuesday. Those who test positive while in home isolation will be transferred to a hospital.

Hong Kong has aligned itself with China’s “zero-COVID” policy that aims to totally stamp out outbreaks, even as many other countries change their approach to living with the virus. Authorities look to impose lockdowns on residential buildings wherever clusters of infections are identified, and have banned public dining after 6 p.m.

In Singapore, a dramatic rise in coronavirus infections followed last week’s holiday, with cases tripling to 13,000 on Friday.

Daily infections have since dipped to 7,752 on Sunday, amid restrictions that include limited capacity for restaurants and capping the number of unique visitors to each household.

Singapore has reported over 100,000 cases spanning the last month, although over 99% of the cases are mild or asymptomatic.

Across Asia, authorities are confronting a similar pattern as the more easily transmissible omicron becomes dominant, even as health officials in several countries report that omicron surges are not driving hospitalizations or deaths as high as the previous delta variant.