hong kong huddled under blankets and thermal shields dozens of elderly patients shivered on gurneys outside a hospital serving one of hong kongs poorest communities a grim tableau for the city as its health system buckles under an omicronfuelled coronavirus wavewe call this the fever zone a nurse in fullbody protective gear told afp declining to be named dont get too closehong kong is in the throes of its worst coronavirus outbreak and record new daily infections have pushed hospitals in the finance hub to the breaking pointon monday caritas medical centre in sham shui po district started setting up isolation tents outside its facilities initially limiting one covid patient per tentbut by nightfall wednesday entire families were crammed into the tents while about 50 others languished in the february chill on hospital beds wheeled outsidesome of my colleagues say we are now in battlefield mode said david chan an emergency room nurse at caritas who is also the acting president of hong kongs hospital authority employees alliancewe are worried that the patients conditions will worsen later this week he told afp calling the situation very undesirableone of chans big concerns was the forecast for wet weatherlater that evening rain began to falllike mainland china hong kong has adhered to a zerocovid strategy which has largely kept the virus out but left the business hub cut off from the worlduntil the most recent outbreak all patients were treated in dedicated covid isolation wards and close contacts were sent to a quarantine campbut the extremely contagious omicron virus variant has left authorities scrambling and exposed shortcomings in plans to deal with a major outbreakon wednesday the daily caseload hit a record 4285 confirmed infections with a further 7000 preliminary positives in the densely packed city of 75 millionbefore the latest wave hong kong had recorded just over 12000 cases since the beginning of the pandemichealth experts say the daily case numbers could rise to 28000 by marchespecially vulnerable are hong kongs vaccinehesitant elderlydespite ample supplies only 43 percent of those aged 7079 and 26 percent of over80s opted to get jabbedlast week the government said people with mild cases could isolate at home but by wednesday there were still 12000 people waiting to be hospitalisedat caritas the wave of patients has left staff exhausted stressed out and helpless chan saidits so painful that we have been working nonstop but we still cannot take care of every patient properly he told afp adding that the current crisis outpaced what they faced at the beginning of the pandemicback then we did not know the virus well and we were short of equipment he saidtwo years on we expected the hospital authority to have better plans but there turned out to be nonecity leader carrie lam ruled out a hard chinastyle lockdown on tuesdaybut the following day beijingcontrolled newspapers carried an order from president xi jinping telling hong kong authorities to take all necessary measures to control the outbreakyet it remains