Hong Kong | The United States accused Chinese media on Tuesday of publishing “false information” about its diplomats in Hong Kong and denied invoking immunity to avoid solitary confinement of two employees who tested positive for COVID-19 .
Washington temporarily closed its consulate on Monday to allow authorities to trace contact cases and carry out disinfection and deep cleaning of the building.
The Hong Kong consulate and health authorities said the two people have been placed in isolation in hospital in accordance with measures taken to combat the coronavirus epidemic.
Chinese state media and a major pro-Beijing union have accused the employees of invoking diplomatic immunity, which US officials have categorically denied.
“The information of the media of the People’s Republic of China about these two cases which do not comply with the quarantine is false,” a spokesperson for the State Department told AFP.
“We reject these attempts to spread misinformation about a critical public health problem.”
Information that diplomatic immunity was allegedly invoked was first published by Dot Dot News, a site run by one of the main pro-Beijing media outlets in Hong Kong.
The English-language Chinese daily “Global Times” reiterated this information and accused US officials of “arrogant and outlaw behavior.”
On Tuesday morning, Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam said the two contaminated consulate employees are in hospital and US officials are complying with regulations.
“I am happy to see that the US Consulate also issued a press release (Monday) to say it will take our advice and support our work,” Carrie Lam told reporters.
The largest pro-Beijing employee union in Hong Kong – the Federation of Unions -, however, staged a small protest outside the U.S. consulate shortly after Ms. Lam’s intervention.
Four members of this union held up banners bearing slogans such as “No privilege, no exception” and “Strong condemnation of virus-spreading behavior despite social morals”.
Public gatherings of more than four people are currently banned in Hong Kong due to coronavirus.
Hong Kong has managed to contain the pandemic so far, at the cost of some of the strictest quarantine measures in the world, and drastic restrictions.
The territory has a total of 11,000 cases and 200 deaths from COVID-19 since the appearance of the virus.