Covid-19 test trucks in a gated area in Hong Kong’s Mid-Levels district on March 13.
Photographer: Justin Chin / Bloomberg
Photographer: Justin Chin / Bloomberg
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Hong Kong completed coronavirus tests in four buildings sealed off in the heart of an upscale residential area popular with expats, taking one of the most dramatic steps yet to prevent a super-spreading event that started at a gym.
Authorities on Saturday cordoned off two towers at the Robinson Place and Blessings Garden residential complexes in the exclusive Mid-Levels neighborhood. As of 2 a.m. Sunday, 1,855 residents of the buildings had been tested and no confirmed cases of Covid-19 have been found, the government said in a pronunciation. The screening was completed at 9 a.m. and the enforcement operation was completed at around 11 a.m.
Police vans and officers arrived on Saturday evening to seal the area around the buildings with red tape and metal barricades. Nearly a dozen makeshift tents lined the sidewalk as government workers in protective gear began to set up sample collection stations.
Sunday has the government announced that more workplaces, schools and residential buildings were subject to mandatory testing assignments. The updated list includes office residences UBS Group, Chanel Hong Kong, Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. and Standard Chartered Plc.
Screening will also be required at six schools and universities, including Kellett School’s Kowloon Bay campus, whose Pok Fu Lam branch was closed last week, as well as more than a dozen residential buildings in the central area of Sai Ying Pun, where sewer samples tested positive for the virus.
The latest government measures marked an escalation from a day-old campaign that already resulted in hundreds of people being sent to quarantine camps, dozens of offices commissioned to conduct mandatory employee surveys and several of Hong Kong’s most expensive schools shutting down in-person classes . While the city had bigger eruptions, for many of the city’s expats, there hasn’t been an outbreak this close to home since the pandemic started.
The number of confirmed cases related to the outbreak rose to 99 after the first case was reported Wednesday.
Several banks advised staff not to come to the office last week. HSBC Holdings Plc left a floor of its main building on Thursday after an employee tested positive for the time being, according to a memo to staff. UBS Group AG told some employees to work from home after an employee tested positive, while Goldman Sachs Group Inc. reverted to a policy that 50% of the staff worked from home.
The outbreak also affected law firms, with Allen & Overy and Herbert Smith Freehills both closing their offices after employees tested positive. Clifford Chance asked the staff to work remotely out of an “abundance of caution”.
Hong Kong, which has one of the strictest quarantine systems in the world, requires that everyone who has been in close contact with infected persons is required to be isolated for a period of time. until two weeks. More than 300 people have been quarantined during the latest outbreak, which started with a trainer at Ursus Fitness in Sai Ying Pun, a gym popular with Western expats.
On Saturday, health officials said there would be mandatory Covid testing for a group of eight- and nine-year-olds at an international school after their teacher tested positive for the virus. Some will need to be quarantined with a parent or guardian. According to an earlier guideline, all children had to be quarantined.
– With the help of Rishaad Salamat
Updates with government statements on lockdown, mandatory testing from second paragraph.