Vegetable supply runs low in Hong Kong on Tuesday after five cross-border truckers

tested positive for the coronavirus, but the government reassures supply of live
produce has started to pick up.
Shenzhen authorities said on Tuesday that five cross-border truckers tested
positive for the coronavirus since last Friday (Feb 4).
Two of them tested positive at the Shenzhen Bay checkpoint as they left Hong Kong,
and three were confirmed after they returned from Shenzhen to the SAR, according to
the Shenzhen City Port Office.
The office said the truckers’ close contacts have been placed under quarantine and
places they have been to were disinfected.

With the coronavirus spreading to different parts of the city, infecting people
from all walks of life, the worsening Covid situation is starting to disrupt
businesses.
Some businesses had said recently that the surge of cases had affected the import
of goods such as fresh vegetables, causing an increase in prices.
Addressing a weekly news briefing, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said
vegetable deliveries from across the border were down as a result of truck drivers
testing positive for the virus, but she did not offer any specific solutions to
solve the shortage.
Shelves stocking vegetables were bare across many supermarkets in the city while
crowds surged into fresh markets to snap up the limited produce available. Other
food remained available.
At a market in the city's downtown Wan Chai market on Tuesday morning, a staff
member from Qiandama vegetable store, shouted to crowds not to enter.
"No more veggies inside...It's like the battlefield," she said as people tried to
charge in.

Some vegetable and fruit stalls selling mainland Chinese produce were shuttered
while others were selling produce at double their usual prices.
Meanwhile, some vegetable stores at a Ho Man Tin market have closed early in the
afternoon after they sold out all their fresh produce.
“People are buying their vegetables in advance, I think it will go on for a few
more days,” said one of the store owners.
A government statement this afternoon said the supply of live produce has started
to pick up after cross-border truckers started to resume businesses this morning.
The statement noted that the vegetable supply in Hong Kong markets yesterday was
one-third of the total amount of supply on Sunday.
“As trucks transporting the fresh produce started to arrive in Hong Kong markets
today, local supply will go back up shortly,” it wrote.
Speaking at a Legco meeting, the city’s health chief Sophia Chan Siu-chee said
authorities will hand out rapid Covid testing kits to the cross-border truckers as
soon as possible for them to get tested by themselves, making sure they have not
contracted the coronavirus.
Hong Kong's stringent coronavirus policies have turned the once top global travel
and business hub into one of the world's most isolated major cities.
The economic and psychological toll from the hardline approach is rapidly rising,
with measures becoming more draconian than those first implemented at the start of
the pandemic in 2020.
Flights are down around 90 percent, schools, playgrounds, gyms as well as most
other venues are shut. Restaurants close at 6pm, while most people, including the
majority of civil servants, are working from home.
Government quarantine facilities are also nearing their maximum as authorities
struggle to keep up with their rigid contact tracing scheme.
Many health experts have said the current strategy of shutting itself off as the
rest of the world shifts to living with coronavirus, is unsustainable.
Doctors say mental health is suffering, particularly in families where people are
earning less, or children cannot go to school due to the restrictions.
1. reassures
say or do something to remove the doubts or fears of (someone).

2. disinfected
clean (something), especially with a chemical, in order to destroy bacteria.

3. confirmed
（of a person) firmly established in a particular habit, belief, or way of life and
unlikely to change their ways.

4. Executive
a person with senior managerial responsibility in a business.

5. restrictions
the limitation or control of someone or something, or the state of being
restricted.

1. Vegetable prices runs up.

2. Five cross-border truckers tested positive for the coronavirus.

3.Some poor families cannot go to school due to the restrictions.

4. People's emotions are affected by the epidemic.

5. The measures imposed on the epidemic are getting stricter.