Chief Executive of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) Carrie Lam on Monday announced that the city will suspend most of its checkpoints to the Chinese mainland from midnight to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Lam said in a briefing Monday that only two checkpoints — Shenzhen Bay and the bridge to Macau and Zhuhai — will remain open.

Lam denied that the move was due to pressure from medical workers, who threatened a five-day strike to demand that the government shut all checkpoints to the Chinese mainland.

She said it had "absolutely nothing to do with the strike" and was instead simply a measure to stem the spread of the virus. Lam urged Hong Kong residents to "stand united" in combating the outbreak.

So far, the epidemic, which broke out in central China's Wuhan city, has infected 17,238 in China, 148 abroad and killed 361 in China, one abroad.

Lam said Hong Kong's international airport would also remain open and stressed the need to set up more quarantine camps to isolate people who contracted the virus and those with whom they came into close contact. 

"I urge residents and district councilors not to oppose any more," she said, referring to public opposition to such facilities being designated near residential areas.

"The World Health Organisation has said that as the situation changes, measures also need to be adjusted. The Hong Kong government has been following this principle," she said.

"These measures affect employees, so businesses should be understanding," she said. "I'd also like to salute medical professionals who have stayed committed to their positions. We will work with the Hospital Authority to ensure that the supply of protective gear, including surgical masks, is sufficient."

The Macao SAR government tightened the border policy to control the entry of visitors from central China's Hubei Province or those who had visited the province within 14 days on January 27.

China's National Immigration Administration Monday reminded Chinese people to pay attention to the changes to Hong Kong and Macao's border entry policies and properly arrange their travel plans to avoid unnecessary loss.

Regina Ip: Complete closure of entry points with Chinese mainland is unnecessary

Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee, Legislative Council Member of Hong Kong SAR and the Chairperson of the New People's Party, told CGTN that the complete closure of border crossings was unnecessary.

"I think people are understandably worried about the spread of the virus. But this time, unlike 2003, I think there has been a lot of political manipulation of the scale of the virus scare, for example, the call for so called complete closure of control points is unrealistic and unnecessary," she said.

"The advocates have not been able to explain what they really meant. Does it mean closing down the airport? Have they looked at the figures? Take the control points bordering the (Chinese) mainland, most of the travelers are actually Hong Kong residents, up to 200,000 a day, whereas mainland visitors, the numbers are coming down steadily," she continued.

"What people I think the advocate deliberately ignore is Hong Kong is actually closely intertwined with the (Chinese) mainland. Every day, we have lots of cross border families students. Hong Kong students studying in (the Chinese) mainland who want to come back. Mainland mothers who need to come here to look after Hong Kong-born children. Even though some people say they are only advocating the stoppage of people flow, not the flow of essential supplies. Do these people realize that a lot of food supplies, for example, ferry to Hong Kong by mainland drivers? So it's really unrealistic to ask for complete closure. That doesn't make sense at all. And that is not necessary," she said.