By The SUN
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| Hundreds of people in full PPE can be seen in the blockaded area in Jordan (RTHK photo) |
The Hong Kong government has imposed a 48-hour
lockdown on a block with about 50 residential buildings in Jordan, in a bid to
control the spread of the coronavirus among people living there.
The unprecedented move, taken in line with chapter
599J of the Regulations on Disease Prevention and Control, was meant to compel
all residents in the targeted area in Kowloon to submit to Covid-19 tests, with Saturday midnight
as the target completion time.
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| Pindutin para sa detalye |
The area designated as
''restricted'' runs from Woosung Street in the east, Nanking Street in the
south, Battery Street in the west, to Kansu Street in the north.
The lockdown took effect as health officials announced 81 new Covid-19 cases, 78 of them locally acquired. Of the local cases, 21 were linked to the Yau Tsim Mong district, and six to adjacent Sham Shui Po, all in Kowloon.
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| PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE |
Speaking to reporters after
an inspection tour of the area Saturday afternoon, Chief Executive Carrie Lam
defended the action as being in the interest of public health.
The city’s top official said
that for the first 20 days of this month, a total of 162 infections were
recorded in the affected districts in Kowloon, where many of the buildings are
old and poorly managed. Equally disturbing was that about 90% of more than 20
sewage samples from the area was found to have the virus.
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| CE Lam says 90% of sewage samples taken from the area had the virus |
Responding to complaints about the lack of adequate notice to residents about the lockdown, Lam said her administration would learn from the experience so it would be better prepared if a similar situation occurs in future.
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| Tunghayan ang isa na namang kwentong Dream Love |
But she said any public
health measures need the full cooperation of citizens to be effective. For its
part, the government is obliged to provide all necessary assistance to those
affected.
“In this case, for example,
we know that the residents being affected are not allowed to leave their homes
for up to 48 hours. So what the government has done is we provide them with
food packs, which we believe should be able to support them in the next two
days,” she said.
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| PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE |
Contrary to earlier reports
that residents who had tested negative for the virus would be allowed to leave,
police who enforced the lockdown ordered everyone within the area to stay at
home until all the test results have been confirmed.
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Anyone who has been in the restricted area
for more than two hours in the past 14 days, was told to stay put and submit to
compulsory testing by midnight tonight.
The order covered even reporters who were
reportedly forced to stay overnight in a hotel when they were stopped from
leaving after interviewing people in the area.
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One man who went into the restricted zone
for a few hours had an altercation with the police when he was told he could
not go out anymore.
