Hundreds of Hubei residents try to enter Hong Kong

Hundreds of Hubei residents try to enter Hong Kong

As calls grow for Hong Kong to seal its borders to mainland visitors amid the deadly Wuhan virus outbreak, officials say hundreds of people from Wuhan have tried and failed to enter the SAR over the past few days.



A deputy secretary for security, Hinny Lam, said up until last night, Hong Kong immigration officials had refused entry to around 1,600 people from Hubei province.



The SAR government had on Sunday night announced a ban until further notice on people from Hubei, as well as anyone who has been in the mainland province over the past two weeks. The policy does not apply to Hong Kong residents.



The authorities said immigration officials had visited more than 100 hotels across Hong Kong on Wednesday, and they found 15 Hubei residents. The 15 were given health advice and their details were recorded.



From midnight, six border checkpoints into Hong Kong were closed to all passengers, along with the high-speed rail line and the original rail line to Guangzhou.



The popular crossings linked to the MTR remain open, although RTHK found that trains departing from Lo Wu and Lok Ma Chau were not busy early on Thursday morning.



A Hong Kong man who lives in Shenzhen, who was using the East Rail Line, said there were fewer people than usual crossing at Lok Ma Chau and he believed that is because students are still on holiday.



He also said that shutting down the six border control points would not affect the lives of Hong Kong people living in Shenzhen.



Meanwhile, the government continues to come under pressure to close the borders completely as the death toll from the new virus grows on the mainland.



The heads of 17 district councils and their deputies issued a joint letter on Thursday expressing their anger over the government's current efforts to try to prevent the coronavirus from spreading in the community, supporting the call to shut the borders down.



They also urged the authorities to meet frontline medical workers as soon as possible to hear their concerns over the outbreak.



Healthcare workers are among those threatening to strike if the borders aren't sealed.