Hong Kong lockdown: experts ask if drastic step needed after only 13 coronavirus cases uncovered; city logs 73 infections

The government has defended the move to seal off Jordan neighbourhood for screening, but several academics doubt the operation was worth it

As life returned to normal for the residents, authorities’ focus shifts to the large Laguna City private housing estate, where an outbreak may be spreading upwards

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Government workers remained in the streets of a Yau Ma Tei neighbourhood on Monday after the lockdown was lifted. Photo: Sam Tsang

Published: 1:27pm, 25 Jan 2021Updated: 12:06am, 26 Jan 2021

Hong Kong has lifted an unprecedented lockdown for mandatory Covid-19 testing in one of its most crowded and rundown areas amid questions about its effectiveness, even as the city faces the spectre of an escalating new outbreak in a prominent middle-class neighbourhood.

Health experts on Monday were left debating the justification for locking down part of Yau Tsim Mong district to test more than 7,000 residents over a two-day period, which uncovered only 13 coronavirus infections.

But those who supported the drastic move noted the possibility that a security guard from the stricken district could have spread the disease to the Laguna City private housing estate in Lam Tin, where dozens of residents were evacuated from an affected block.

Authorities confirmed 73 new infections citywide, amid growing speculation that the Yau Ma Tei wholesale fruit market might be next in line for a lockdown, which would have a major impact on vendors ahead of their critical selling period for the Lunar New Year holiday.

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Hong Kong coronavirus lockdown: 10,000 people confined as police cordon off part of Yau Tsim Mong

Also on Monday, Secretary for Food and Health Professor Sophia Chan Siu-chee approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for the first roll-out in Hong Kong, which was expected to start after the festive season break.

In a different environment from the mostly dilapidated tenement buildings with subdivided flats in the area locked down over the weekend, health authorities turned their focus to Block 5 of Laguna City, where they ordered the evacuation of dozens of residents living in flats marked “E”.