Coronavirus: Hong Kong Lunar New Year flower markets open with crowd control measures
- Coloured alert systems in full swing at market venues, as measures align with latest goal to reduce daily infection caseload to under a dozen by holiday
- Overnight lockdowns in two areas uncover no new cases, but more than 100 households did not answer the door when authorities came knocking
Hong Kong’s traditional Lunar New Year flower markets opened on Saturday for the festive period amid stringent coronavirus crowd-control measures.
Authorities have installed infrared sensors at the entrances and exits of each area to keep track of the number of people inside, to guard against Covid-19 infection risks at the city’s 15 major flower markets.
The measures are in line with the administration’s latest target to reduce daily coronavirus cases to fewer than a dozen by Lunar New Year towards the end of next week, in a bid for an economic revival.
An alert system on television, radio and the internet based on traffic light signals is being used to indicate crowd capacities at the flower markets. A red alert will be issued when capacity has been exceeded.
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Under such circumstances, public entry is disallowed and visitors will be asked to queue at a designated waiting area with social-distancing measures in place.