The financial hub has 15 confirmed cases of the disease, many of them brought over from the Chinese mainland where the epidemic began and has so far killed more than 360 people.

The action by non-essential medical staff comes as the city’s pro-Beijing leadership resists completely sealing the border.

Authorities have argued that doing so would be discriminatory, economically damaging and go against advice from the World Health Organization.

Instead, the city government has closed some crossings with arrivals down some 50 percent since last week.

But there is growing public anger in a city that maintains a deep historical mistrust of the mainland after the 2003 SARS outbreak — which was initially covered up by Beijing — killed nearly 300 Hong Kongers.