i speak to britt kenneth, who's outside that residential building in hong kong. so brit tell us was why, why were the residents inside those housing? brock's not release today is expected and how they coping? oh, so there were about $2700.00 residents that were meant to be released today, including those who are lining up behind me. but after a handful of cases were detected, it's been decided that they will stay locked down in their apartments until friday . chief executive carry lamb say that she understands people would be sad and anxious to get that announcement, but she's thanks to people for their cooperation in this. this would probably be quite a challenging task. they have to come out every day for that. mandatory tests and the ones that we've spoken to say that this creates a more anxiety because they worried that they might catch it with among their fellow residents. they've complained of long waiting times and crowded scenes. their hygiene issues, we've seen calls of rubbish built up around these buildings. they also say that the 3 meals that they pro

kenneth, thank you. >>> meanwhile, the u.s. and china are battling over covid and airline flights. britt clennett has more from hong kong.tt, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, whit. that's right. the u.s. is suspending 44 flights from china for two months just as the lunar new year holiday and the beijing winter games get under way. american authorities say they're responding after china just a few weeks ago banned the same number of flights from the states under their blanket no tolerance zero covid restrictions. if a flight has more than five positive cases on board, that carrier is automatically suspended. a spokesperson for the chinese government called the u.s. action unreasonable noting that the ban applies for their carriers too. china has shown how far it's willing to go to contain covid. its borders are still effectively closed, and flights between the u.s. and china were running at just 2% of its prepandemic levels, even before this ban. this is just the most recent spat between the u.s. and china over covid. the relationship has had a turbulent few years, and this most recent tit for tat is really bring