HONG KONG – Hong Kong’s government has asked around 10,000 residents to stay home in an area of Kowloon peninsula on Saturday, to get all of them tested for the new coronavirus and until the results are out. This is the first lockdown in the Chinese-ruled city.
The government said it aims to finish testing people in all the 70 buildings in the “restricted area” of Jordan within about 48 hours, so that they can get back to work.
Most buildings in the are are old and poorly maintained. Moreover, the are is densely populated area, where subdivided units are common, said health secretary Sophia Chan.
“The infection risk in the community is quite high,” she told a news conference. “After assessment, we think it’s necessary to make a restriction-testing declaration in the restricted area to achieve the goal of zero cases.”
The restricted area has confirmed 162 confirmed cases of COVID-19 this month, and the ratio of virus detected in sewage samples from buildings there was higher than that of other areas.
