Coronavirus: cross-border travellers queue to enter Hong Kong before quarantine rules take effect
- Long lines at transport interchange of port in neighbouring Shenzhen
- From Saturday, anyone entering Hong Kong from the mainland will be quarantined for 14 days
At 7pm, long queues snaked back from the transport interchange of Shenzhen Bay Port as mainlanders and city residents waited to enter Hong Kong before the weekend.
Hundreds of mainlanders who had made it into the city were seen queuing for tour coaches at the port, the line stretching back more than 100 metres. Police had stepped up security, with more officers on patrol.
Individual visitors were still seen entering Hong Kong via the crossing before the clock struck twelve. The last visitor, a mainlander, walked out of the border control point at 12.07am on Saturday. She said she was not asked to go into a two-week quarantine.
The new rule, announced by Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor on Wednesday, was part of the government’s stepped-up tactics to contain the coronavirus, which has infected more than 31,000 and killed more than 630 on the mainland. By Friday night, 26 people had been infected in Hong Kong, one of them fatally.