Lockdowns imposed in To Kwa Wan, Tuen Mun

The government imposed a lockdown on two separate residential buildings in To Kwa Wan and Tuen Mun on Saturday night.

The authorities declared Block 9 of Gold Coast a “restricted zone” at about 8.30pm, and Wah Fat Building at Ma Hang Chung Road was sealed off at about 8pm.

People within the restricted zones have to undergo mandatory coronavirus tests – unless they’ve already done so in the past two days and have an SMS proving they’re virus-free.

Officials said the risk of transmission may be higher in those buildings because they recently had confirmed coronavirus cases.

They expect both operations to be completed by 7am on Sunday.

The government has been imposing similar lockdowns across the city in recent days.

Two areas in Yuen Long and Ma On Shan that were put under overnight lockdown on Friday found no confirmed cases, adding to doubts over the effectiveness of such operations after only a handful of cases were found.

But the Centre for Health Protection defended the measure at its daily press conference, saying it could help identify potential transmission chains.

“If the results coming back are negative, we would be happy,” said the Centre’s controller, Ronald Lam. This is because it would show that at least at that snapshot of time, there was no apparent transmission chain.

“We are using a multi-pronged strategy to try to win over this battle of the epidemic,” he added.