Hong Kong residents braced for a city-wide lockdown, emptying supermarkets and pharmacies on Tuesday, even as leader Carrie Lam called for calm and appealed for the public not to worry over a compulsory mass COVID-19 testing plan.
Mass testing for the city's 7.4 million residents is set to take place over nine days starting in the second half of March, the South China Morning Post reported, citing an unidentified source.
Exemptions would be made for those who buy food, seek medical treatment and maintain societal operations. Hong Kong's stock market would continue to operate, Sing Tao newspaper reported, citing unidentified sources.On Tuesday, she appealed to the public "not to fall prey to rumours to avoid unnecessary fears being stirred", saying the supply of food and goods remaining normal.
Despite her comments, dozens of people queued to enter pharmacies and banks across the city, while many scoured empty shelves in grocery stores to stock up on whatever essentials they could. The Chinese ruled city has seen coronavirus infections surge some 34 times to over 34,000 on Monday from just over 100 at the start of February. Deaths are also climbing, with facilities for storing dead bodies at hospitals and public mortuaries at maximum capacity.Hong Kong continues to stick to a COVID policy of "dynamic zero", the same as mainland China, which seeks to curb all outbreaks at any cost.
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