Hong Kong: a Hong Kong MPs posing for group photo with Chinese President Xi Jinping During a visit to the leader of the financial center this week it was confirmed on Sunday that he had tested positive for the coronavirus.
Xi visited Hong Kong under strict security measures to mark the 25th anniversary of the city’s handover from Britain in his first visit outside mainland China since the outbreak of the pandemic.
Steven Ho, a 42-year-old member of Hong Kong’s biggest pro-Beijing party that sits in the city’s rubber stamp legislature, was one of nearly 100 officials who gave close contact with Xi for a photo call on Thursday afternoon.
According to photographs released by the government, Ho stood in two lines directly behind Xi.
He said the MLA tested negative on the first day of Xi’s visit on Thursday and tested unconfirmed on Friday.
He did not take part in any program on Friday following uncertain test results, he said in a statement on social media.
“The July 1 sample was extremely low infectious and was classified as ‘indeterminate,’ but for public safety, I did not participate in that day’s events,” Ho wrote.
Ho was the second member of the DAB party to have tested positive during Xi’s visit.
Hong Kong’s sole representative of Beijing’s top law-making body, Tam Yiu-chung, tested positive on Thursday and was absent from all events.
China is the only major economy still taking a zero-Covid approach to containing the outbreak, as they use snap lockdowns and mass testing.
Xi has not left China in nearly 900 days and the vast country’s borders have been largely sealed for most outsiders.
Hong Kong is following a mild version of zero-Covid, but has kept heavy travel and restrictions in place throughout the pandemic.
Extraordinarily stringent rules were imposed to ensure that both the coronavirus and political protests were not in Xi’s orbit during a visit to the city, where a democracy movement has been crushed since massive protests three years ago.
Hundreds of government officials, legislators and other invited guests were forced into an anti-Covid “closed-loop” system, which included limiting their social contacts, conducting daily PCR tests and checking into a quarantine hotel on travel days .
During the visit, parts of the city were cordoned off, prominent dissidents were placed under heavy police surveillance, and many journalists were barred from covering official events.
The city’s National Security Police made nine arrests a week before Xi’s visit, and at least two on Friday.
Xi visited Hong Kong under strict security measures to mark the 25th anniversary of the city’s handover from Britain in his first visit outside mainland China since the outbreak of the pandemic.
Steven Ho, a 42-year-old member of Hong Kong’s biggest pro-Beijing party that sits in the city’s rubber stamp legislature, was one of nearly 100 officials who gave close contact with Xi for a photo call on Thursday afternoon.
According to photographs released by the government, Ho stood in two lines directly behind Xi.
He said the MLA tested negative on the first day of Xi’s visit on Thursday and tested unconfirmed on Friday.
He did not take part in any program on Friday following uncertain test results, he said in a statement on social media.
“The July 1 sample was extremely low infectious and was classified as ‘indeterminate,’ but for public safety, I did not participate in that day’s events,” Ho wrote.
Ho was the second member of the DAB party to have tested positive during Xi’s visit.
Hong Kong’s sole representative of Beijing’s top law-making body, Tam Yiu-chung, tested positive on Thursday and was absent from all events.
China is the only major economy still taking a zero-Covid approach to containing the outbreak, as they use snap lockdowns and mass testing.
Xi has not left China in nearly 900 days and the vast country’s borders have been largely sealed for most outsiders.
Hong Kong is following a mild version of zero-Covid, but has kept heavy travel and restrictions in place throughout the pandemic.
Extraordinarily stringent rules were imposed to ensure that both the coronavirus and political protests were not in Xi’s orbit during a visit to the city, where a democracy movement has been crushed since massive protests three years ago.
Hundreds of government officials, legislators and other invited guests were forced into an anti-Covid “closed-loop” system, which included limiting their social contacts, conducting daily PCR tests and checking into a quarantine hotel on travel days .
During the visit, parts of the city were cordoned off, prominent dissidents were placed under heavy police surveillance, and many journalists were barred from covering official events.
The city’s National Security Police made nine arrests a week before Xi’s visit, and at least two on Friday.