Explainer | Hong Kong’s coronavirus lockdown: what we know and don’t know – and what you can do to prepare for it
- City leader Carrie Lam says details for universal testing measure not final, but ‘wholesale city lockdown’ has been ruled out
- Experts encourage people to regularly call support network of friends, maintain healthy diet and moderate time spent watching television news
As the spectre of a March lockdown looms while Hong Kong battles its most explosive Covid-19 wave, fears over food supply and mobility have sparked panic buying throughout the city.
The situation has led to Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor calling for calm, saying that details have yet to be fleshed out, but fears still run rampant over a mainland Chinese-style shutdown of the city.
The Post explores how residents can prepare for a lockdown, from experts’ tips on mental wellness to proper social media usage:
1. What lockdown options are being considered?
Mass testing is expected to kick off in the latter half of March, with Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee telling a radio programme on Monday that the government would not rule out the possibility of a lockdown.
Dr Leung Chi-chiu, an expert in respiratory disease and public health, has warned that a lockdown would be a massive logistics exercise that could severely disrupt the lives of residents.
But Lam later said details were still being worked out and the scale of such an exercise was still under consideration.
The city leader said on Wednesday that she had already ruled out the possibility of a “wholesale city lockdown”.
“I have said we are not going to have a wholesale city lockdown. We know that in some places, a lockdown allows no entry and no exit,” she said. “This will not be the case for Hong Kong.”