HSBC Closes Main Hong Kong Office After Multiple Covid Cases

(Bloomberg) -- HSBC Holdings Plc’s main office in Hong Kong will be closed from March 17 until further notice after three people working in the building tested positive for Covid-19.

The Center for Health Protection is expected to notify visitors who stayed at the building for more than two hours between March 2 and 15 that they will be required to undergo mandatory coronavirus tests, according to an internal memo seen by Bloomberg. The closure also means staff and customers will have no access to the lender’s biggest branch in the city.

A spokeswoman for HSBC declined to comment. The Hong Kong Economic Journal reported the closure earlier.

The bank’s iconic main building in Hong Kong is located at 1 Queen’s Road Central.

A coronavirus outbreak at a Hong Kong gym popular among expatriates has spread, with positive cases appearing in the banking community, just as the city was emerging from a prolonged round of social restrictions and venue closures. The outbreak has prompted banks to tell their employees to work from home.

Hong Kong has only had a total of about 11,000 cases, but its quarantine measures are among the strictest in the world. Close contacts of positive cases must enter centralized surveillance facilities for two weeks, and residents entering from outside of China have to spend 21 days in designated hotels.

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