COVID-19: Lockdown fears spark panic buying in Hong Kong

Hong Kongers stripped supermarket shelves bare Tuesday as panic buying set in following mixed messaging from the government over whether it plans a lockdown this month.

Uncertainty over COVID-19 rules has sent the city's residents flocking to supermarkets, chemists and vegetable stores to stock up, leaving shelves empty across the city.

Photos circulating on social media showed people had trouble finding a variety of items including meat, vegetables, frozen foods, noodles, paracetamol and testing kits.

The financial hub is currently in the grips of its worst coronavirus outbreak, registering tens of thousands of new cases each day, overwhelming hospitals and shattering the city's zero-Covid strategy.

Authorities plan to test all 7.4 million residents this month and isolate all infections either at home or in a series of camps that are still being constructed with the help of mainland China.

City leader Carrie Lam had initially ruled out a mainland style lockdown where people are confined to their homes during the testing period. But on Monday, health chief Sophia Chan confirmed it was still on the table, a day after a senior Chinese health official described it as the best option.

On Tuesday multiple pro-government Hong Kong media citing official sources also said authorities were looking at a variety of lockdown options for the test period. One of the most densely populated cities on earth, Hong Kong's supermarkets have limited backroom storage space and saw waves of panic buying at the start of the pandemic two years ago.

The vast majority of its food is imported from mainland China and the current supply crunch has been worsened by cross border truckers getting infected by the high transmissible Omicron variant.

"We have so many questions but all answers are 'to be confirmed'," Chan Ka-lok, an international politics scholar at Baptist University, wrote on social media. "Rush to buy and stock up, let the people decide how to live their life."

The decision to mass test residents was also itself a policy u-turn - Lam had previously ruled out such a step before backing it last month.