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Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam discredited rumors about an imminent citywide lockdown on Saturday. Instead, she suggested additional public health regulations would be effected first to address increased COVID-19 transmission.
"There are suggestions in the community that Hong Kong may consider such measures as a 'stay-at-home order or 'lockdown' as has been adopted in other places if the situation further deteriorates," Lam wrote in a statement released Saturday, as Hong Kong confirmed another record daily increase in new cases of the novel coronavirus.
The chief executive said comprehensive lockdown policies, which were never implemented in Hong Kong, "should be handled very carefully" and called their impacts "far-reaching" in continued remarks.
"What we see now is that there is still room for further restricting the operation of various premises and reducing the number of people going out," Lam's Saturday statement went on. "We should take into account Hong Kong's actual situation and unless there is really no other choice, we will not adopt such extreme measures."
Newsweek reached out to Lam's office for additional comments, but did not receive a reply in time for publication.
Health officials in Hong Kong reported the region's highest single-day jump in new cases of the coronavirus on Saturday, adding 133 confirmed infections to its overall total. It was Hong Kong's fourth consecutive daily case report to surpass numbers shared the previous day. Similar to other parts of the world where COVID-19 curves are trending upward again, increasing virus cases in Hong Kong subsequently led to higher hospitalization numbers.
"We are seeing a very high number of cases daily and the trend is still increasing," Dr. Chuang Shuk-kwan, who leads the Hong Kong Centre for Health Protection's communicable disease branch, said of the latest virus data, according to the South China Morning Post. Chuang said officials are "very worried" about whether the outbreak can be managed, the news outlet reported on Saturday.
Saturday's figures brought Hong Kong's total case count to 2,506 confirmed and probable infections. The government's virus dashboard lists current 835 hospitalizations related to COVID-19, noting that more than 50 new patients were admitted between Friday and Saturday, and 37 were considered critical. Of another 1,455 patients who were previously hospitalized in Hong Kong for COVID-19, close to 50 were discharged over the past day. The city has recorded 18 total deaths from the virus.
Hong Kong officials have implemented a series of restrictions for businesses and imposed new group gathering limits in response to rising infections. The most significant wave of regulations went into effect in mid-July, closing businesses across a dozen industries; prohibiting restaurant dine-in services during the evenings; and requiring individuals to wear face masks while using public transportation. It also lowered Hong Kong's group gathering limit from 50 people to four. Per an additional measure announced July 22, people in Hong Kong are now required to wear masks in all indoor public settings.
