AP PHOTOS: Scenes from Hong Kong's COVID-19 crisis
ABC News
HONG KONG -- The fast-spreading omicron variant is overwhelming Hong Kong, prompting mass testing, quarantines, supermarket panic-buying and a shortage of hospital beds. Even the morgues are overflowing, forcing authorities to store bodies in refrigerated shipping containers.
As the global death toll from the coronavirus topped 6 million this week, the semi-autonomous Chinese city has been recording about 150 deaths per day, giving it the world's highest death rate per 1 million people, according to the Our World in Data website.
More than 2,000 people have died in less than three months in Hong Kong since Dec. 31. By comparison, the city of 7.4 million people had lost just 213 people to COVID-19 previously.
A low vaccination rate, particularly among the elderly, is one of the key factors in the latest surge. An analysis of the first 1,153 fatal cases in the current wave showed just 8% had received two doses of a vaccine.
