:quality(85)//cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/infobae/5ORZOSP6N5CSNBVAS36W2PRZ2Y.jpg "Two Hong Kong neighborhoods confined for the first time since the pandemic began")
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Hong Kong, Jan 23 – The government of the semi-autonomous city of Hong Kong, immersed in a fourth wave of infections for months, confined two populous neighborhoods located on the Kowloon Peninsula on Saturday in an attempt to stop the advance of the covid, in the first time it has confined its residents since the pandemic began.
Authorities took the measure after recording a rapid increase in cases in the area over the past four days, with 145 positives in the Yau Ma Tei and Jordan neighborhoods.
As announced by the Government in a statement, those who reside in these two areas should have nucleic acid tests and remain at home until the results are known.
The confinement will last 48 hours and affects some 10,000 residents, many of them poor and elderly who live in old buildings in the financial city.
They can only access the area, cordoned off by the Police from early Friday to Saturday, health workers and other workers considered essential as caregivers for the elderly.
Confined residents will not be allowed to leave the area, but will be allowed to move within it if they have a negative nucleic acid test result.
The authorities, who deployed some 3,000 epidemic prevention and control workers to implement the lockdown, assured that they will provide food and cleaning supplies to affected residents.
In case of detecting a case of coronavirus, the positive in question will be sent to a hospital, while their close contacts will be isolated in observation centers.
The total number of infected in Hong Kong since the beginning of the pandemic amounts to 9,928 people, of which 168 died.