Hong Kong ponders lockdown amid latest coronavirus outbreak

Panic spreads after more than 500 new cases recorded in past two weeks, most of them local

Once named in the same breath as Taiwan and Singapore as an early example of successful virus control, Hong Kong is now in the midst of a worsening outbreak of the coronavirus, with no sign of it slowing down.

Hong Kong residents had been living with reduced pandemic-related restrictions in recent months. But in the past two weeks the region has recorded more than 500 new cases, over 400 of them local.