Hong Kong officials imposed a strict 48-hour lockout on Saturday, forcing thousands of residents to stay in their homes as the coronavirus outbreak in the city worsened.
Authorities have made the unprecedented move in the city’s Yau Tsim Mong district, focusing on 16 apartment buildings where no residents are allowed to leave unless they are tested for the virus, Associated Press reports.
Hong Kong was hit in November with a second outbreak of the coronavirus. In the past two months, more than 4,300 cases have been recorded, accounting for nearly 40 percent of the city’s total number of cases. Until now, officials have tried to avoid strict closures in the busy city.
Coronavirus cases in the Yau Tsim Mong district represent about half of the infections in the past week.
So far, about 3,000 people in the Yau Tsim Mong district have been tested for coronavirus, connecting them to the thousands of others in the city of 7.5 million who have been tested in recent days.