Hong Kong has COVID Camps as Shenzhen and Shanghai Limits Movements of People
Posted on 03/14/2022
As the U.S. and the West remove restrictions on COVID policies following a change in CDC calculations on severity of coronavirus cases and a lower amount of weekly hospitalizations, China is experiencing the largest wave of COVID since the end of national lockdown in March 2020. Institutional investors remain cautious on Asia, as COVID continues to spread throughout the region despite earlier draconian measures of quarantine camps, forced vaccinations, and strict isolation policies. With a COVID-Zero strategy, a prolonged lockdown in China would likely impact China’s economic growth. The cities of Shenzhen and Shanghai imposed restrictions on the movements of their residents, as a coronavirus outbreak continued to spread across much of mainland China. On Sunday, Shenzhen announced a lockdown for the next seven days, a city of more than 17.5 million residents. COVID cases doubled across China to nearly 3,400. In Shenzhen, the government mandated that all “non-essential” workers must stay home and adults must undergo three P.C.R. tests in the coming days. Furthermore, in Shenzhen, buses and subway trains are being halted. Neighboring Hong Kong, Shenzhen has one of the world’s largest ports. China has attempted to keep ports running during COVID outbreaks since then by mandating many port workers to live at the docks for weeks at a time.
Hong Kong
Hong Kong has tried to keep its COVID rules as strict as possible. Officials in Hong Kong constructed mass quarantine centers and treatment facilities to house patients with even the mildest COVID-19 symptoms. Until recently, Hong Kong routinely sent the close contacts of confirmed COVID cases to government-run quarantine camps (yes – quarantine camps). Over the past week, Hong Kong is averaging 24,242 new cases per day, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, and more than 270 deaths daily. The Hong Kong government now is changing policy allowing as many as 300,000 Hong Kong residents to isolate at home.
