JAKARTA - Hundreds of Hong Kong residents packed a border post in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, Friday to queue for immigration checks before entering mainland China.
Some of them have queued up for hours. After the immigration check, they still have to wait for the bus that will take them to several hotels to undergo a 14-day quarantine.
Most of them left their homes in Hong Kong at 11.30 local time (10.30 WIB), but were only able to enter the hotel in Shenzhen a few hours later. Even though the Hong Kong-Shenzhen road trip is only 1.5 hours.
The scene came in recent days after Hong Kong was hit by a further wave of COVID-19.
Hong Kong Immigration data shows 3,577 Hong Kong citizens traveling to mainland China by air, via the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge, or via the Shenzhen border post on December 8, a threefold increase compared to November 8.
Nearly 4,500 people arrive from Hong Kong every day on December 4-5 after the local government closed Kindergarten, Elementary and Middle School classes.
"A lot of people from Hong Kong go to China out of fear of being infected, especially last week when parents brought their children after school closed," said Pei Zhirong of the Luohu District Emergency Service, Shenzhen City.
Pei, who is in charge of escorting Hong Kong residents from a Shenzhen checkpoint to several hotels in Luohu, said those arriving from Hong Kong were 4-17 years old on average.
"We estimate that this number will increase towards Christmas," he was quoted as saying by the ECNS news page.
Of course this has resulted in a number of hotels in Shenzhen overwhelmed.
A hotel clerk in Luohu who was used for quarantine admitted that his hotel was almost full.
Other districts in Shenzhen, such as Futian and Nanshan, are also facing the same pressure.
According to the quarantine provisions stipulated by the Guangdong Provincial Government, every person arriving from Hong Kong must show a negative COVID-19 test result that is valid for 24 hours in order to enter the area.
On Thursday, December 10, Hong Kong received 112 new cases, bringing the total cases of COVID-19 to 7,292.
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