Coronavirus: Hong Kong faces escalated medical strike despite government move to expand border closures

[Stephen Flynn]

Hospital Authority says services ‘seriously affected’ as about 2,700 staff skip work in bid to force government into total border shutdown

    City’s first human-to-human transmission of deadly virus confirmed as 15th patient infected through close contact with her son

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3048738/coronavirus-hong-kong-leader-carrie-lam-declares

“Hong Kong’s embattled leader has buckled under intense public and political pressure to announce a further closure of the city’s borders with mainland China to keep out the coronavirus that originated in Wuhan, but still stopping short of the total shutdown demanded by public hospital workers who vowed to escalate a strike they began on Monday.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor on Monday said all border crossings would be closed, except for the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge, Shenzhen Bay Port and the international airport, even as the city confirmed its first case of human-to-human coronavirus infection.

The Centre for Health Protection said the city’s 15th case, confirmed on Sunday night to be the mother of a 39-year-old coronavirus patient from Whampoa Garden in Hung Hom, had been infected through close contact with her son.”

After the first six checkpoints were closed, the number of Hong Kong, mainland and other travellers entering the city had dropped by 57 per cent, 62 per cent and 49 per cent respectively, she said.

But as more than 100,000 people had still crossed the border on Sunday, the additional closures were necessary.