China coronavirus: Hong Kong leader hits back at delay criticism as she suspends school classes, cancels marathon and declares city at highest level of emergency
- Lam to chair steering committee overseeing measures to cope with virus outbreak
- Most kindergartens, primary and secondary schools will not reopen until February 17 while Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon cancelled
Hong Kong’s leader has declared the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak an emergency, raising the government’s response to its highest level and rolling out a series of measures to prevent further infection.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, in a 90-minute press conference on Saturday afternoon, said that she would personally chair an interdepartmental steering committee, while also announcing the cancellation of the city’s marathon, the extension of school holidays and the implementation of health declarations at all entry points to Hong Kong.
All flights and high-speed trains from Wuhan to Hong Kong would be suspended indefinitely to control the spread of the virus, she added.
Lam, who returned to the city on Saturday morning following a week’s visit to Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum, also rebutted mounting criticism that her government had been slow to react in her absence. As of Friday, five confirmed cases of the coronavirus infection had been identified in Hong Kong, along with 108 suspected cases. All patients had been to Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak in mainland China.
“There has been no case of waiting for me to get back,” Lam said. “Even when I was in Davos I never stopped liaising with Secretary for Health Sophia Chan and Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung.”
Lam said the new package of measures was introduced because the situation had reached a “critical point”, two days after the city’s first confirmed case.
