Hong Kong lockdown: expert proposes fresh round of Covid-19 testing in restricted area, warns second confinement zone may be needed around nearby market
- Another screening exercise should be undertaken in Yau Tsim Mong zone if many infections are detected, official adviser says
- David Hui also calls on government to consider imposing similar lockdown in neighbouring market area
Professor David Hui Shu-cheong, a respiratory medicine expert from Chinese University, also suggested on Sunday that the nearby Yau Ma Tei Fruit Market and surrounding residential buildings could be the next to be sealed off.
Some 10,000 residents of about 200 buildings in Jordan in the Yau Tsim Mong district were locked down early on Saturday for emergency Covid-19 screening in an exercise expected to last two days.
Commenting before it was announced that testing during the lockdown had uncovered 13 infections, Hui said a second bout of screening might be warranted in that neighbourhood if the number of infections detected were in the double digits, but said another lockdown there would not be necessary.
“We would need to see how many positive cases we have found. If the figure is double digits or more, other [infected] residents might develop symptoms during the incubation period,” Hui said.