Coronavirus: after frantic dash to cross border on Friday, Shenzhen Bay Port deserted as Hong Kong’s 14-day mandatory quarantine measure comes into force
- Crossing handles almost 60,000 arrivals on Friday as many rush to get into Hong Kong before the new scheme takes effect
- Under the scheme, locals will be confined to their homes for 14 days, while non-locals must stay at hotels or the government’s quarantine centres
Following a frantic dash to cross one of Hong Kong’s few remaining open border crossings with mainland China, traffic dropped drastically on Saturday morning as the government’s 14-day mandatory quarantine scheme took effect.
Shenzhen Bay Port handled almost 60,000 arrivals on Friday – double that of Wednesday, the day the scheme was announced – as many rushed to get across before the new measures kicked in. But by Saturday morning, it was desolate with only about a dozen travellers filing through between 9am and 11am.
The port, alongside the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge and the airport, are the only entry points to Hong Kong that remain open.
Tang, a Hong Kong resident in his 70s, only learned of the mandatory quarantine period as he was crossing the border to Shenzhen on Saturday morning to buy a train ticket.
He told immigration officers he wanted to make a U-turn.
“I said I didn’t want to cross the border now, but they said I must,” he said.