Hong Kong will extend social-distancing measures, expand mandatory testing and introduce new restrictions in certain neighborhoods to battle an extended wave of coronavirus cases.<\/p>\n
The moves come after the Asian financial hub reported 107 daily Covid-19 infections on Monday, the most in a month, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam told a weekly news briefing Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis shows that we still have transmission chains across the territory,\u201d Lam said. \u201cSo what we need to do now is join hands and curb transmission as much as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lam said the city would announce specific new virus-control measures at a health department briefing later Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Hong Kong has reverted to some of its strictest anti-coronavirus measures in months as the government attempts to tamp down the latest wave of Covid-19 cases. The now long-running restrictions have continued to weigh on Hong Kong\u2019s economy, which has been battered by both the pandemic and landmark protests in 2019.<\/p>\n
The city has seen virus clusters in a number of buildings in the dense Yau Ma Tei and Jordan neighborhoods of Kowloon. Lam said new measures and restrictions would be coming for those areas.<\/p>\n
Lam said the higher number of reported cases Monday came from a renewed effort to test problematic areas, including by deploying mobile testing units, and did not represent a worsening of the pandemic in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet me reassure the public not to panic,\u201d Lam said. \u201cWe need to step up our efforts on testing.\u201d<\/p>\n