Hong Kong Shipping Terminal Hit by Coronavirus, Threatening Movement of Goods

(Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong reported 31 local coronavirus cases Monday and extended social distancing restrictions after new clusters emerged, including at the main container shipping port where essential food and supplies are brought in to the city.

Eleven of the new local cases were of unknown origin, the health department said. Infections linked to Kwai Tsing Container Terminals rose by two, bringing the cluster to 65. Hong Kong’s death toll stood at 69.

New and growing clusters at the port and in settings such as dormitories for foreign workers suggest there’s still a “considerably high” risk of an explosive community outbreak, the government said in a statement Monday. Although Hong Kong’s worst outbreak has eased from its peak in mid-July, levels of infection aren’t yet showing a sustained drop.

“It is not yet the time for relaxation and there is no room for complacency in epidemic control,” a spokesman for the Food and Health Bureau said in the statement, warning that the third wave of infections is declining much slower than the second, despite more stringent border and social-distancing controls.

Authorities are “still discussing what to do” with regard to operations at Kwai Tsing, Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the Center for Health Protection’s communicable diseases department, said at a briefing Sunday. “Shutting down the whole terminal would be a big deal, as many foreign goods and products are from there,” she said.

Kwai Tsing handled 77% of the city’s 18.3 million 20-foot equivalent unit port container throughput last year, government data show.

Hong Kong Container Terminal Operators Association said Monday that operations at Kwai Tsing were normal and that necessary action was being taken to contain the spread of the virus within the port area. “It is important to keep the port operational as it is crucial for the daily life of all Hong Kong people,” the association said in a statement.

Chuang said Sunday that testing will be increased to cover as many as 8,000 workers at the terminal, where confined living conditions for more than 100 workers at Wang Kee Port Operation Services Ltd. likely enabled high rates of transmission. “They eat, relax, shower inside, sleep over and live like a family,” she said.

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