Hong Kong’s spike in  COVID-19 cases keeps breaking records, causing a medical system overload, transportation services cuts, shortened shopping hours, and suspension of visits to prisoners. As the Hong Kong government evaluates the need for a city-wide lockdown, citizens have started panic buying, and emptying food shelves in supermarkets. On March 3, Hong Kong reported 56,827 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 144 deaths. It’s the second day in a row that the daily number of infections exceeded 50,000. On March 2, the number surged to 55,353. Many restaurants and shops are closed, the main financial district is eerily quiet, and few people are on the streets of the usually bustling city. The rapid worsening of the COVID-19 outbreak has forced subway, bus, and ferry companies, and supermarket chains to cut back on services and operations. In a statement issued on March 2, Hong Kong’s Transport Department said it would suspend 98 …