Coronavirus: Hong Kong has no plans for ‘wholesale city lockdown’, leader Carrie Lam insists, as record 55,000 new Covid-19 cases confirmed
- Carrie Lam says government is still refining the details, and while there will be some form of plan ‘limiting individual movements’ a complete lockdown will not happen
- Sources say universal testing could begin on March 26 and last for nine days under a preliminary plan
Sources told the Post that universal testing could begin on March 26 and last for nine days under a preliminary plan of some form of lockdown, the parameters to which had yet to be agreed upon.
They also said differences on the timing of the screening had emerged between advisers from mainland China and their local counterparts, with the experts from the north believing it was better to do it earlier and the Hong Kong side suggesting the authorities wait until after the fifth wave had peaked.
“The government is still considering various options on how to take forward the compulsory universal testing,” a source said.
Widespread concern over the extent of the lockdown had sparked a wave of panic buying for food, medicines and basic necessities in recent days, with rumours flying that a large-scale or even citywide shutdown would be imposed later this month.
Speculation first grew on Monday morning when health minister Sophia Chan Siu-chee told a radio show the government would not rule out the possibility of a lockdown or curfew, in apparent contradiction to previous remarks by Lam.
