Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam urged Hongkongers to remain “calm” on Monday after rumors of an imminent citywide lockdown for mass Chinese coronavirus testing spurred people to panic buy and strip some local supermarket shelves bare, Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) reported.

Speaking to reporters at Hong Kong’s Shenzhen Bay Port on February 28, Lam “called for calm, saying the government is still assessing whether the public should be banned from leaving their homes during the mass testing,” public broadcaster RTHK relayed.

Lam said she and her administration are “looking at how a lockdown should be carried out if there was to be one.”

Earlier on Monday, Hong Kong Health Secretary Sophia Chan told local media “the option of a citywide lockdown to coincide with a universal Covid [Chinese coronavirus] testing programme in March had not been ruled out.”

Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam speaks during a press conference at the government headquarters in Hong Kong on April 13, 2021. (Photo by ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP via Getty Images)

“Chan said that to maximise the effectiveness of the testing exercise, the flow of people would need to be reduced and they ‘should not go out … or they should stay home as far as possible,'” according to RTHK.

The statement sparked a wave of frantic supermarket shopping by concerned Hong Kong residents later Monday. Some of the panic buyers told RTHK they feared a government-imposed lockdown could see them sealed inside their homes for a prolonged period of time without access to food or water.

One woman shopping at a grocery store in Hong Kong’s Admiralty district on February 28 told the broadcaster she “rushed there to buy daily necessities after reading the news.”

“I have two young kids at home, [so I’m buying] things like rice, detergent, everyday goods,” she explained.

Hong Kong’s government issued a press release on March 1 seeming to confirm a plan to impose a mass coronavirus testing scheme on the city’s populace later this month. The statement alluded to certain “details” of the plan that were yet to be “finalized,” possibly referring to an accompanying lockdown measure.

The press release said municipal officials “need to plan carefully for the mass testing scheme because of its sheer scale,” adding that “once the details are finalised, they will be publicised as soon as possible.”

RTHK reported on the evening of March 1 witnessing city government authorities lock down several residential buildings for coronavirus testing across six Hong Kong districts: Tsing Yi, Sha Tin, Tin Shui Wai, Tung Chung, Kowloon City, and Kwun Tong.

“Residents of Chun Hin House at Ching Chun Court, Pok Man House at Pok Hong Estate, Heng Kin House at Tin Heng Estate, Kit Yat House at Yat Tung (II) Estate, Tak Sui House at Tak Long Estate and Shing Tai House at On Tai Estate must get tested and stay at home until further notice,” the government-funded broadcaster revealed.