Hong Kong starts to isolate itself from the mainland as virus claims 100th victim
City chief bows to pressure to shut down rail and ferry services to China, as well as halving number of flights
Sarah Newey, Nicola Smith
Sophia Yan
HONG KONG said yesterday it was to temporarily close some of its borders with mainland China and stop issuing travel permits to Chinese tourists, after the coronavirus claimed its 100th victim.
In a drastic move, Carrie Lam, the city’s embattled chief executive, said that, from tomorrow, high-speed rail links would be stopped, cross-border ferry services suspended and flights to the mainland halved.
It came amid growing alarm at the rapid spread of the new virus, which has reached at least 15 countries outside China, including the US, Germany and France. In Hong Kong, where eight cases were identified, the outbreak stirred raw memories of the SARS virus, which killed 800 people worldwide in 2002-2003. The densely populated former British colony saw 1,750 infections and 280 deaths during that epidemic.
Wearing a face mask, Ms Lam, whose popularity is at an all-time low after eight months of pro-democracy protests, buckled to political pressure and public demands to limit links with the mainland. Health workers had threatened to strike over the official response to the outbreak, after a hospital workers’ union had been telling her to close the border for days.
Ms Lam said the intervention would “reduce the mobility of people from both sides” until further notice.
She appealed to citizens returning from China to stay in self-imposed quarantine at home for 14 days.
The number of infections in China rose by nearly 60 per cent on Monday night to 4,500 cases, as Beijing registered its first coronavirus-related fatality.
The outbreak, which is thought to have originated in a seafood market in Wuhan, has spread to every region in China bar Tibet, prompting unprecedented lockdowns in more than a dozen cities and severe curbs on transport and public gatherings.
Other countries also increased precautions. The Philippines stopped issuing visas to Chinese nationals, while Russia’s far eastern border crossings with China were closed.
Taiwan, which announced its eighth case yesterday, prohibited Hubei residents from visiting and imposed a two-week ban on Chinese students visiting Taiwanese universities.
In Denmark, a row erupted over a satirical newspaper cartoon of China’s flag, depicting each of its five yellow stars as a circular coronavirus virion.
China’s embassy demanded an apology, but Mette Frederiksen, the Danish prime minister, refused.
She said: “We have a strong tradition in Denmark not only for free speech but also for satirical drawings, and that will continue.”
Countries including the UK, US and Japan were desperately trying to help evacuate their nationals from Wuhan, the home to 11 million people at the epicentre of the outbreak. It is thought that up to 300 British citizens are stranded there. The Foreign Office said it was working to extract them.
But Britons in the city criticised the “disorganised” response from the UK.
A dual US-UK citizen called Nick, who was teaching at an international school in Wuhan, told The Daily Telegraph he had barely heard from the British Government about evacuation plans despite contacting the Foreign Office and the UK embassy in Beijing on numerous occasions. The man, who did not wish to divulge his surname, said his Indonesian wife had been given regular updates and advice from her country’s government. He said: “It really is frustrating. We just don’t understand; [Britain] is supposed to be a powerhouse of world diplomacy.”
Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, said on television that the Government was “working on” the repatriation of citizens in Wuhan and urged them to contact the British consulate.
But Dr Tedros Adhanom, the World Health Organisation’s director general, said he did not support the evacuation of foreign nationals and was confident the country could contain the outbreak.