Hong Kong to extend COVID-19 restrictions by 2 weeks to preserve success of efforts
21 April, 2020
Hong Kong's government will extend restrictions aimed at tackling the coronavirus for another 2 weeks to preserve the city's success in keeping the amount of cases down, Chief Executive Carrie Lam said on Tuesday (Apr 21).
The extension comes as governments all over the world, including those of Australia, Germany and the United States are steadily relaxing restrictions or considering doing so.
Hong Kong recorded zero new coronavirus cases on Monday for the very first time since early March. The town has confirmed 1,025 total cases and four deaths because the outbreak began in January.
Hong Kong banned public gatherings greater than four people for two weeks from Mar 29 and later extended that restriction until Apr 23.
Game centres, gyms, cinemas and other areas of amusement and public entertainment are also closed and foreign arrivals at the airport have already been suspended indefinitely.
"This is indeed an extremely difficult balancing act," Lam told a normal weekly news conference, referring to the toll the restrictions are taking on the recession-hit economy.
"For the time being, the better balance to be struck and a safer method of ensure all these successes that Hong Kong has achieved during the last months wouldn't normally be wasted is to increase these social distancing measures for another 2 weeks."
Hong Kong has avoided the exponential infections seen elsewhere and won praise for a solid community response, related to the city's experience with the 2003 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic.
Although schools remain closed, many persons are working from your home and shopping malls and restaurants are less busy. Almost all Hong Kongers wear masks, while office buildings, commercial centres and public institutions run temperature checks and free sanitizer dispensers are accessible.
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