Shut all border crossings now, says opposition

Shut all border crossings now, says opposition

The opposition lawmakers called on Saturday for the immediate shutting down all border crossings with the mainland as the authorities there deal with an outbreak of the coronavirus that originated in Wuhan.



Chief Executive Carrie Lam had earlier said health checks would be stepped up at boundary crossing checkpoints, but said it was inappropriate and impractical to ban mainlanders from entering the city.



The pan-democratic camp disagreed with CE's contention and said if Hong Kong does not stop infected people from coming into the city, it will be very hard to control things later.



Civic Party lawmaker Dennis Kwok said the government could use the Prevention and Control of Disease Ordinance to shut the border and allow Hong Kong residents.



Labour Party's Fernando Cheung said the price of face masks has sky-rocketed and the government should provide free masks to vulnerable groups.



The pan-democratic lawmakers appeared at the media briefing wearing face masks. In contrast none of the government officials who met the media earlier had worn masks.