Lockdown fears spark panic buying in Hong Kong

Densely populated Hong Kong relies on food imports from mainland China but they have been disrupted by cross border truck drives being quarantined after getting infected with Omicron

Hong Kongers stripped shop shelves bare Tuesday as panic buying set in following mixed messaging from the government over whether it plans a China-style hard lockdown this month.

Uncertainty over Covid rules has sent the city's residents flocking to supermarkets, chemists and vegetable stores to stock up, leaving shelves empty across the city.

"We are like ants going home, grabbing a bit at one spot at a time," a woman, who gave her surname Wu, told AFP on Tuesday in a supermarket where most vegetables and meat had been snapped up.

Authorities plan to test all 7.4 million residents this month and isolate all infections either at home or in a series of camps that are still being constructed with the help of mainland China.

But on Monday, health chief Sophia Chan confirmed it was still on the table, a day after a senior Chinese health official described it as the best option.

SCMP's said the current favoured option was a nine-day "large-scale lockdown" where most residents would only be allowed out to by food.

City apartments are also some of the smallest in the world leaving little space to stock up. 

The vast majority of HongKong's food is imported from mainland China and the current supply crunch has been worsened by cross border truckers getting infected by the high transmissible Omicron variant.

The government released a statement late Monday saying food supplies remained constant and that there was no need for panic buying. 

But analysts said uncertainty and distrust were fuelling consumer habits.

"Rush to buy and stock up, let the people decide how to live their life."

"Rules changing every few days, u-turns, botched stats, poor data disclosure," he wrote on Twitter.

The decision to mass test residents was itself a policy U-turn -- Lam had previously ruled out such a step before backing it last month.

Some 70,000 isolation units for mild cases are due to come online in the coming weeks, in requisitioned hotels, public housing units and camps being built with Chinese help.

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