COVID-19 testing trucks in an area under lockdown in the Mid-Levels neighborhood of Hong Kong, on March 13. (PHOTO / BLOOMBERG)

HONG KONG - More than 1,800 residents were tested for COVID-19 after four buildings in the heart of a popular expatriate residential area in Hong Kong were cordoned off on Saturday night. 

Authorities cordoned off two towers each at the Robinson Place and Blessings Garden residential complexes in the exclusive Mid-Levels neighborhood, according to a government statement Sunday morning.

“The government finished the compulsory testing exercise at around 9 am today and is now carrying out enforcement actions in the ‘restricted area’ to verify that all people in the ‘restricted area’ have undergone compulsory testing,” the statement reads.

As of 2 am Saturday, around 1,855 residents had undergone testing. No confirmed cases were found

As of 2 am Saturday, around 1,855 residents had undergone testing. No confirmed cases were found, it added. The enforcement operation concluded at around 11 am.

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The government said it also assigned staff to visit around 980 households but around 150 did not answer the door. 

“Those include some households with confirmed case or undergoing quarantine. Some units are possibly vacant as well,” the statement reads.

Police vans and officers arrived earlier on Saturday night to seal off the area around the buildings with red tape and metal barricades. Nearly a dozen makeshift tents lined the sidewalk as government workers in protective gear began setting up specimen collection stations.

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The move marks an escalation of a days-old campaign that’s already resulted in hundreds of people being sent to quarantine camps, dozens of offices being ordered to conduct mandatory employee testing and several of Hong Kong’s most expensive schools to halt in-person classes. 

The number of confirmed cases linked to the outbreak ballooned to 99 after the first case was reported on Wednesday.

Several banks advised staff earlier this week to not come into offices. HSBC Holdings Plc vacated a floor of its main building Thursday after an employee tested preliminary positive, according to a memo to staff. UBS Group AG told some staff to work from home after an employee tested positive, while Goldman Sachs Group Inc reverted to a policy of 50 percent of staff working from home.

The outbreak also affected legal firms, with Allen & Overy and Herbert Smith Freehills both closing their offices after employees tested positive. Clifford Chance asked staff to work remotely out of an “abundance of caution.”

READ MORE: Policy, public awareness help contain COVID-19 in HK

Hong Kong, which has one of the strictest quarantine regimes in the world, requires all who have had close contact with infected persons to enter mandatory isolation for a period up to two weeks. More than 300 people have been sent to quarantine in the latest outbreak, which started with a trainer at Ursus Fitness in Sai Ying Pun, a gym popular with western expats.

Officials earlier ordered compulsory COVID-19 tests for a group of eight- and nine-year-olds in an international school after their teacher tested positive for the virus. Some will be required to be quarantined with a parent or caregiver.

In a separate statement, the government said 149,200 residents had taken their first dose of the Sinovac vaccine while 27,800 persons received the Comirnaty vaccine against the coronavirus as of Saturday. The city’s COVID-19 Vaccination Programme began on February 26. 

With Bloomberg inputs