Hong Kong announced it is suspending cross border high-speed train and ferry services as well as limiting flights to mainland China due to the Coronavirus outbreak. City’s chief executive Carrie Lam revealed the ferry and train services will be suspended from Thursday, January 30. The number of flights will be halved. Personal travel permits for mainland China will also be suspended.
Hong Kong has been weighing up a number of options for limiting the flow of people between the hub and the mainland. Nearly 400 people from Hubei who tried to enter this week had been denied entry.
106 people died, while a total of 4,614 cases were reported of the pneumonia-like virus, most of whom in mainland China. 8 of those cases are in Hong Kong. There are 36 cases across the rest of Asia.
The coronavirus, which originated in Wuhan, central China, has spread to Australia, North America, and Europe since the first case was reported on December 8.