HONG KONG – Hong Kong will place all visitors arriving from mainland China from Saturday (Feb 8) under a mandatory 14-day quarantine, the city’s leader Carrie Lam announced today (Feb 5).
The city’s two cruise terminals will also be closed once the new quarantine measures kick in.
Speaking to reporters at a press conference, Ms Lam told reporters that the measures at curbing the cross-border flow of people aimed to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, which originated from Wuhan in the central Hubei province.
Ms Lam gave no details on how the quarantine would be implemented but said updates would be released in the coming days.
Lam said that the Hong Kong government would also allocate HK$10 billion (US$1.29 billion) to fight the spread of the coronavirus, which has sickened more than 20,000 people and killed more than 400.
In Hong Kong, there has been 21 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, with one death.
Ms Lam said on Monday that Hong Kong would suspend 10 out of 13 border crossings with mainland China.
Crossings that remain open are the city's airport, the Hong-Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge and the Shenzhen Bay joint checkpoint.
The move comes amid growing pressure on authorities for a complete shutdown of the border to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Some of the city’s medical staff have gone on strike the past three days, demanding a full border closure.
Meanwhile, some 3,600 passengers and crew on a cruise ship docked in Hong Kong are being kept on board while they are tested for the coronavirus after some crew were reported to have fever.
The cruise ship, World Dream, operated by Dream Cruises, docked in Hong Kong after it was denied entry to the southern Taiwan port of Kaohsiung on Tuesday.
Three mainland Chinese who had been on board from Jan 19 to 24 tested positive for the coronavirus, Hong Kong’s health department said. Most of those remaining on board were from Hong Kong.