HONG KONG (Reuters) – Hong Kong chief Carrie Lam mentioned on Monday there have been no present plans to additional tighten strict social distancing measures as authorities battle to include a deepening coronavirus outbreak which has submerged its well being system and seen deaths soar.

Lam mentioned there was restricted room to tighten additional, with the worldwide monetary hub already having put in place the strictest measures since its COVID technique started in 2020. Gatherings of greater than two persons are banned, most venues are shut – together with faculties – and masks are obligatory in all places, even when exercising open air.

“The federal government needs to be very cautious earlier than tightening social distancing measures additional … with the necessity to take into account the psychological well being of residents,” she instructed a day by day press briefing.

Lam mentioned final week that town authorities had no time-frame for a possible obligatory mass testing of Hong Kong’s 7.4 million residents.

Hong Kong has reported greater than 700,000 infections and about 4,000 deaths, most of them going down up to now three weeks. The previous British colony has adopted mainland China’s ‘dynamic zero’ COVID technique which seeks to curb all outbreaks as quickly as they happen.

The Chinese language-ruled territory has had its borders successfully sealed for 2 years with few flights capable of land right here and most transit passengers banned.

However deaths have spiked, notably amongst its largely unvaccinated aged, with town registering probably the most deaths per million individuals globally within the week to March 10, in accordance with information publication Our World in Information.

Lam’s feedback got here after China reported a surge in new native coronavirus circumstances on Sunday, greater than triple the caseload of the day prior to this, and the best in about two years.

Some mainland Chinese language web customers took to social media platforms to specific anger at Hong Kong, saying it has failed to regulate its coronanvirus outbreak and blaming the hub for inflicting the nation’s newest spike in infections.

“Shenzhen individuals have been scolding Hong Kong daily for the previous month. It’s extremely clear that it has brought on a lot bother for others,” mentioned one web person, referred to as Chen Shui, posting on Chinese language social media platform Weibo (NASDAQ:).