Lawmakers United In Demand For Ban On Visitors To HK

Legislators from both the pro-democracy and pro-establishment camps unexpectedly found themselves in agreement with each other on Monday, as calls grow for Hong Kong to temporarily ban all visitors due to the escalating coronavirus pandemic.

The rare consensus comes after many of the SAR's latest Covid-19 infections were linked to overseas travel, and visits to Europe in particular.

The biggest pro-government party, the DAB, urged the administration to bar non-residents from entering the SAR for several weeks, as long as it can ensure that the flow of goods into the city won't be affected.

The party also called for everyone entering the territory to be tested for the coronavirus and not just those showing symptoms of the virus.

Pro-democracy legislators, meanwhile, said keeping the border open to non-residents is making Hong Kong people and the city's hospitals vulnerable.

"Instead of just sitting here like sitting ducks, [Chief Executive] Carrie Lam must conduct this total ban on non-Hong Kong residents," said Council Front's Claudia Mo.

Mo added that the SAR must opt to undergo some short-term pain, in order to benefit from the long-term gain, and warned that the mainland's claim to have next to no new domestic cases of the virus "simply cannot be believed".

The Civic Party's Kwok Ka-ki, meanwhile, said non-residents must be temporarily banned from the city to help stop public hospitals from being overwhelmed by new Covid-19 patients.

"If we are not doing anything now, one week later all the negative pressure rooms will be filled up. Where will our other patients be going to? They will be jammed into normal medical wards, without negative pressure, without adequate equipment to protect against the threat of the disease," Kwok said.

"All the patients forced to be in the hospital, like patients with heart disease, cardiovascular disease, cancer, they will all be subjected to the same risk of having the [new] disease. You'll remember the story of Sars, we don't want to copy this again," he added.

Kwok, who is also a medical doctor, said other places had "sensibly" closed their borders, but the SAR government is refusing to make a rational decision on the issue.

The government said earlier that the majority of people entering the city amid the outbreak are local residents returning home, and non-residents make up less than ten percent of arrivals at the moment