Hong Kong hospital strike kicks off as top doctor backs mainland China border closure calls amid coronavirus fears
- Union says more than 2,400 doctors, nurses and medical assistants have signed up for the strike, the first wave of which involved non-essential staff
- Secretary for Labour and Welfare Law Chi-kwong urges the workers to put patients first
More than 2,400 Hong Kong public hospital workers staged a strike on Monday morning as a top microbiologist agreed with their central demand that the government close the border with mainland China to fend off the deadly coronavirus.
“Closing the border entirely is the only effective way to prevent the spread of the virus,” Dr Ho Pak-leung, of the University of Hong Kong, told a radio programme.
Long queues formed at various hospitals as doctors, nurses and medical assistants – many wearing white ribbons – registered for the industrial action, aimed primarily at forcing the border shutdown.
More than 3,000 non-essential hospital workers were expected to take part in the strike’s first wave, a day after Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor refused to meet the union behind the action, the 18,000-strong Hospital Authority Employees Alliance, which emerged in December during anti-government protests.
As of midday, more than 2,400 workers had signed up for the strike, the union said. The alliance has threatened to step up its action, with more than 6,000 essential personnel joining the strike on Tuesday if the government does not respond by 6pm.