Hong Kong orders first lockdown in Kowloon Area, Media says

Photographer: Anthony Kwan / Getty Images

Hong Kong will imprison tens of thousands of residents for the first time in an effort to contain an increasingly worsening coronavirus outbreak, local media reported Friday, citing unidentified people.

The lockdown is expected to begin this weekend in Yau Tsim Mong, Kowloon’s core metropolitan district, according to the South China Morning Post and HK01. It covers a mandatory testing area where outdated buildings and subdivided flats populated by lower income families are common.

SCMP previously indicated that parts of Sham Shui Po would also shut down, but later updated to say the district would not be affected.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index fell a whopping 1.7% after the report on Friday.

According to the SCMP report, only residents who show negative Covid-19 test results are allowed to leave the enclosed area, which specifies that exemptions are allowed for those who need to seek medical advice or sustain physical injury.

HK01 said every building would be monitored by government personnel to ensure that people leaving the building have a negative test result. They will also send enforcement officers to each condo to ensure residents have passed a test.

The reported measures pale in comparison to the lockdowns passed in mainland China, where a tough crackdown prohibits people from leaving cities, districts or even their apartment complexes. But it is the most serious step Hong Kong has taken to keep the pathogen under control, and a blow to the government’s approach to keeping the economy largely afloat during the pandemic.

Targeted lockdown

Hong Kong to shield Yau Tsim Mong, one of the city’s densest neighborhoods in Kowloon District

Sources: GovHK, Food and Health Bureau

Despite nearly two months of social distance, the former British colony’s infection curve has been ticked again, as colder weather and more rapidly spreading variants pose a greater threat.

The increase in cases, while much less dramatic compared to world cities like London and New York, has prompted the government to introduce restrictions such as the closure of schools and some businesses. But until now it has been reluctant to take tougher measures, such as lockdowns, out of concern they might cause a crisis in a city already rocked by protests.

City near Beijing closed, millions tested as outbreak grows

Even limited confinement in Hong Kong would impose severe movement restrictions in the densely populated city with some of the smallest living spaces in the world – the average apartment is approximately 150 square feet. It is not uncommon for poorer residents in the affected Kowloon areas to live in rooms large enough only for a bed, with a communal kitchen and toilet facilities.

The lockdown neighborhood is located in an older low-income neighborhood of Kowloon, although the city’s density means it is moments from glittering skyscrapers such as the International Commerce Center, home to the offices of Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse Group AG are located.

The lockdown will not be lifted until the government is satisfied that everyone in the area has been tested, the SCMP report said.

Leung Chi-chiu, former chairman of the Hong Kong Medical Association’s advisory committee on communicable diseases, said the stricter measures are pointless as cases are already being found outside designated areas. The spread will continue through cross-transmission within families and across multiple incubation periods, Leung said.

The tougher measures come as Hong Kong rolls out its vaccine program, which could help calm anxious residents as vaccination efforts begin earlier in mainland China and rival financial hub Singapore. The government is expected to grant emergency approval for the Pfizer Inc.-BioNTech SE shot shortly after the panel of experts recommended the green light last week.

In Hong Kong, 167 people have died from Covid-19 – still about half the toll taken to the city by the 2003 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS pandemic, which killed nearly 300 people in the early 2000s .

The more severe restrictions also come as the neighboring city of Macau reported the first imported case since June.

– Assisted by Felix Tam, Pablo Robles, Dominic Lau, Alfred Liu, Natalie Lung and Justin Chin

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