Hong Kong authorities imposed a strict 48-hour blockade on Saturday, forcing thousands of residents to stay at their homes while the coronavirus outbreak worsened in the city.
Authorities have made an unprecedented move in the city’s Yau Tsim Mong district, concentrating on 16 apartment buildings where no resident will be allowed to leave unless tested for the virus, the Associated Press reported.
Hong Kong was hit by a second coronavirus outbreak in November. More than 4,300 cases have been reported in the past two months, representing almost 40% of the city’s total number of cases. So far, authorities have tried to avoid imposing rigid roadblocks in the crowded city.
Coronavirus cases in Yau Tsim Mong district accounted for about half of infections in the past week.
So far, some 3,000 people in the Yau Tsim Mong district have been tested for coronavirus, joining thousands of others in the city of 7.5 million people who have been tested in the past few days.