Authorities in Hong Kong are gearing up to clamp down on people's movements after ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping told the city to throw all of its resources at stamping out a wave of COVID-19 infections that is currently threatening to engulf hospitals.
Healthcare workers are already pushed to breaking point, with patients forced to wait for hours, sometimes days, in parking lots and courtyards awaiting COVID-19 test results before they can be either admitted to hospital or relocated to an isolation facility.
"The situation is really not ideal, especially yesterday when there was heavy rain," Hospital Authority Employees Alliance chairman David Chan told RFA. "For the patients waiting outdoors, there is a likelihood that their condition could deteriorate, and they could get hypothermia."
"We have had insufficient staffing levels throughout this pandemic, and this worsened during last night's night shift in particular," Chan said. "We had cases of five or six colleagues, nurses and patient care assistants, dealing with around 100 patients."
The government has said it is considering the logistics of moving ahead with city-wide compulsory COVID-19 testing for the entire population, as typically carried out in other Chinese cities under the CCP's zero-COVID policy.
Such testing programs usually also involve enforced relocation to isolation camps outside of a targeted area and local-area lockdowns in which residents are confined to their homes and told to wait for delivery of essential supplies.
Both measures have led to widespread criticism in China, as they have led to the denial of essential medical care to people in lockdown zones, as well as hunger and hardship caused by a lack of supplies. The compulsory isolation facilities have also been slated on social media for confining people in packed dorms with rundown facilities, increasing the likelihood of transmission of COVID-19.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam said a mass-testing program could be rolled out when necessary arrangements have been made, with the help of authorities in mainland China.
Speaking after meeting with mainland Chinese experts arriving in Hong Kong to help with the zero-COVID approach, Lam said she has also requested medical resources, makeshift facilities and testing capabilities from mainland China.
"One of our requests to the central government is to greatly enhance our testing capabilities," Lam told reporters. "I believe the central government will definitely respond positively to our request."
Further restrictions on people's movements will begin on Feb. 24 following an upgrade of the government's LeaveHomeSafe tracking app, which only allows vaccinated people to access certain public areas.
"Members of the public should get prepared for the full implementation of the "vaccine pass" from Feb. 24 onwards by updating the LeaveHomeSafe mobile app ... and storing COVID-19 vaccination records as soon as possible," the government said in a statement on Thursday.
"When confirmed Covid-19 cases have visited the venue, such data can assist the Centre for Health Protection in tracing persons with a high risk of infection and cut the transmission chains in the community as quickly and precisely as possible," the statement said, adding that people's data will be anonymized and only held for 31 days.
Hong Kong recorded 6,116 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, a single-day record, bringing the total number of confirmed cases since the start of this year to more than 16,000.
Meanwhile, authorities in neighboring cities in mainland China, including Dongguan, Huizhou, Zhuhai and Shanwei recently issued reward notices of 100,000-500,000 yuan for information leading to the arrest of anyone illegally crossing the border between mainland China and Hong Kong or Macau.
Workers strengthened a razor-wire border fence near Shenzhen's Liantang port overnight on Thursday, in a bid to stop people evading quarantine restrictions by crossing the border in secret, according to media photos.
The China Maritime Safety Administration and its Guangdong branch issued a navigation warning on Thursday warning of "live ammunition training" in the Pearl River estuary.
Hong Kong current affairs commentator Johnny Lau said huge lines currently forming at border crossings mean that more people are likely to try to cross the border informally.
"All the current indications are that this is happening," Lau told RFA. "Border crossings between Hong Kong and China are packed, and plenty of people have various reasons to want to get into mainland China."
"So they go through illegally," he said.
Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.