#DailyUpdate #Mar8 #COVID19

COVID-19 Updates (8/3)

At the time of writing, the global number of infected has risen to at least 107, 400 with 3652 deaths. China, South Korea, Iran, and Italy continue to be the most affected by the pandemic.

China is now reporting 80,701 cases with 3097 deaths. South Korea is reporting 7133 cases with 50 deaths. Iran is reporting 6566 cases with 145 deaths. Italy is reporting 5883 cases with 233 deaths.

The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in France has climbed to 949 with 16 deaths. Germany also reports 939 cases.

The coronavirus COVID-19 is affecting 103 countries and territories around the world.

At least 10 were dead after coronavirus quarantine hotel in Quanzhou, Fujian Province, China. Rescue work is under way.

Hong Kong reported 3rd death case due to the coronavirus, a 76 years old woman died this afternoon.

There have been 19 deaths due to COVID-19, New York declares state of emergency. Multiple States in the US report their first infection cases, including Washington D.C.

American President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence had attended a meeting with a confirmed patient. Trump said he was not worried.

The Italian government announced a lockdown of the northern Lombardy region and 11 neighboring provinces to contain the spread of COVID-19. One-fourth of the Italian population is affected.

The Italian government also announced public facilities including museums, gyms and swimming pool will be shut. Holidays and leaves for all healthcare workers are cancelled.

Coles, Australia chained supermarkets, announced new limit to one pack of toilet paper per customer amid the panic buying.

A COVID-19 patient in Japan was reported with meningitis. It’s the first case of meningitis caused by the coronavirus.

First confirmed cases have been reported from Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Paraguay and Malta.

First local infection was reported in the Philippines. Filipino President Duterte announced state of public health emergency.

Fatemeh Rahbar, member of the Iranian parliament, died from COVID-19.

Source: CNN, John Hopkins University, World Meter, New York Times, Now News, Reuters, Times Malta, CCTV, Alarabiya, The Guardian, CNBC

Police Arrest at least 3 Elected District Councilors in Taipo

According to district councilor Yiu Yuek-san, three elected councilors including Lin Kok-cheung, Man Nim-chi and Yiu Kwan-ho have been arrested by the police.

Source: Apple News #Mar8

Read first hand interview with Taipo District Councilor on March 8, 2020:
https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/18265

Police Violently Press Civilian onto the ground

22:36 | Tseung Kwan O
From the evening of March 8 to after mid-night on March 9, police arrested over 40 civilians in Tseung Kwan O.

Police seemed to have targeted the civilians who attended a peaceful memorial held for the 22-year-old student Chow Tsz-lok who passed away 4 months ago. Chow fell from a carpark in the area during police operation and the cause of his fall remains unknown.

Video: Marco Pang /City Broadcasting Channel #Mar8

Plainclothes Police Wield Baton at Reporters After Identity Disclosed

2249 Kwong Ming Court, Tseung Kwan O

As riot police pushed forward, several plainclothes police, however, had their identity unexpectedly disclosed.

The plainclothes police then wielded baton at reporters and screamed "go forward" amidst the chaos they created. They entered a residential area and arrest several citizens in black.

Video: Marco Pang / City Broadcasting Channel #Mar8

https://www.facebook.com/207097505984138/posts/3637110109649510/?vh=e&d=n

#PoliceState
Police Arrest Teenager Brutally

Further to the earlier post about riot police arresting a teenager in white t-shirt against the wall.

A video in Facebook has captured the suspected same teenager being caught by several riot police officers with excessive violence including a choke hold, for unknown reason.

Further reading:
https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/18347

Video: Internet #Mar8

#Newspaper #EdwardLeung

Edward Leung Transferred to Maximum Security Prison Cell

(6 Mar) Edward Leung, sentenced to 6 years of imprisonment for participating in the 2016 Mong Kok civil unrest and now serving his time in Shek Pik Prison, has suddenly been transferred to the Category A Complex, the maximum security cell in the prison he is currently in over a month ago. In one of the maximum security facilities in Hong Kong, Edward is serving his time with some of the most serious offenders. Sources said that Edward was transferred because Hong Kong Correctional Services discovered words indicating prison break in the Christmas cards addressed to Edward. Others said that the authority had concrete serious security reasons for making the transfer.

Around 3 months ago, some from the pro-democracy camp initiated “Write With You” movements for writing and sending Christmas cards for persons in custody due to the recent pro-democracy protests and the 2016 Mong Kok civil unrest. Until around a month ago, Edward Leung, former spokesman of Hong Kong Indigenous, a localist group, arrested for participating in the Mong Kok civil unrest, was transferred to a prison cell of maximum security in the Category A Complex in Shek Pik Prison.

Cheng Chung-tai, LegCo member and chairman of the localist group Civic Passion, wrote on Facebook yesterday (5 Mar) that an unnamed prison inmate received a bunch of letters and Christmas cards around this size of a suitcase which may have contained sensitive information. “It may have indicated a prison break”. It may also just be “the authority making a big fuss out of nothing”, which eventually led the unnamed Category B prisoner (not in solitary confinement) to be transferred to a Category A prison cell, needing to readjust life in prison all over again. Cheng criticised the action of mass-sending Christmas cards.

Category A Complex, where Edward is locked in now, is sealed with multiple doors and locks and CCTV in operation, mostly occupied by the worst criminals and has single-cell units known as “water-and-rice cells”. These cells for solitary confinement has three sides of gray walls and a side of iron prison cell gate with no windows inside. 24-hour patrols are in operation as well. Sources said that Edward does not see the transfer as necessarily a bad thing because there is more designated room and since the other inmates are mostly in their 40s and 50s, they are in fact not as threatening as one would expect.

A retired personnel from the security unit of Correctional Services Department said that he believes the transfer is irrelevant to the Christmas cards addressed to him. The transfer would have been made out of serious security concerns of the authority. On the other hand, the Judgment upon Edward’s appeal against his “riot” jail sentence was scheduled to be delivered in February this year. It was postponed only because of the coronavirus spread.

Source: Sing Tao Daily
https://bit.ly/38wR5xn
Translation: Hong Kong Columns
https://bit.ly/2TMwEah

#Interview #LiYi #LeeYee

83-year-old Li Yi: I don’t have long to live, but I believe Hong Kong young people have wisdom beyond imagination 1/6

Li Yi is 83 years old. According to him, he takes several medicines a day, for diabetes, for whatever ... and sleeping pills. He often said that he couldn't sleep well since he was young, but he still wrote five newspaper columns a week and did "one-minute reading" for RTHK. Li Yi reads all kinds of news online, and he is no less enthusiastic than younger people. There is a Thai helper who cooks and serves him. Other than that, his home is only a house full of books.

Li Yi's family is all in foreign countries and his late wife was buried in Canada, but he is still struggling in Hong Kong alone. Li Yi said that at this stage, he probably should be with family and write his own autobiography. "Of course I can still write if I leave Hong Kong." However, Li Yi cannot not let go of Hong Kong and leave. He states that ever since Hong Kong’s future problems in 1981, he has been "love Hong Kong" and since then "the feelings for China have been very weak."

Continue reading:
https://telegra.ph/83-year-old-Li-Yi-I-dont-have-long-to-live-but-I-believe-Hong-Kong-young-people-have-wisdom-beyond-imagination-16-03-07

To be continued

Source: Stand News, (25-Feb)
https://bit.ly/3aARccx

#BasicLaw #TiananmenMassacre #Democracy #SinoBritishJointDeclaration #OneCountryTwoSystems #SARS

FTU member denied sending medicine to stranded medicine was an election operation

Chief Executive Carrie Lam worked as a hotline operator on Friday (Mar 7) for sending medicine initiative organized by Hong Kong Federation of Trade Union (FTU). Legislator Wong Kwok-kin, also a member of FTU, expressed that because of the long-term Mainland service network of the FTU, it can quickly deliver medicines to Hong Kong people stranded in Wuhan. He emphasized that sending medicines was an voluntary action of the Federation , rebutting Democratic Party, Tu kun-sun's accusation that their actions were "election operations."

Source: InMedia HK #Mar8 #ChinesePneumonia

#Court #PoliceBrutality
15-year-old Accused of Injuring Officer by Dropping Corrosive Chemical Claimed Slapped by Police While Detained: Caused Hearing Loss

A 15 year-old teenager was charged with attempted wounding, possession of offensive weapon, and possession and use of a possibly offensive weapon two days after an officer was injured in the face and neck by corrosive chemical thrown from a height on March 2. The case was mentioned at the Fanling Juvenile Court on Mar 6. The teenager's bail was denied, and was remanded in custody until May for the next mention. The defense complained that the police slapped the teenager and used excessive force during the detention. The teenager now suffered from ear damage, which caused him to not be able hear clearly when the judicial clerk was reading out the accusations.

Source: Inmedia
#Mar6 #PoliceState #Cruelity #HearingLoss

#ChinesePneumonia #GlobalOutbreak
Hong Kong SARS Expert: A Global Outbreak of Wuhan O
Pneumonia is Happening

Contrasting WHO, Hong Kong Microbiologist and SARS expert Yuen Kwok-yung told Pheonix TV in an interview that a global outbreak is taking place as over 50 countries have reported cases of Wuhan pneumonia. In particular, the current situation in Italy and Daegu of South Korea is quite similar to the preliminary state of the Wuhan outbreak in China.

Concerning some claims saying that the coronavirus did not come from China, Yuen said it is obviouly a problem to sell wild animals in densely populated urban area.

Yuen said, "If you do not respect the life of wild animals: you sell them, you eat them, and their viruses enter human body. 17 years has psssed [since 2003 SARS outbreak from China] but o
people did not learn any lesson."

Source: Radio 881903; Apple Daily #Mar6

Why new diseases keep happening in China?

With the recent Wuhan Pneumonia outbreak all around the world, Chinese officials had started to bring up a theory that the coronavirus was not originated from China. It is a good time to look back how the coronavirus started and why such outbreak keeps appearing in the same country – China.

https://youtu.be/TPpoJGYlW54

#Newspaper

Mainland Chinese netizens’s views on “A Battle Against Epidemic”

Editor’s Note: On the 6 March, the book “A Battle Against Epidemic” was officially called off by shelf.

(27 Feb) The book “China Combating COVID-19 in 2020 - A Battle Against Epidemic” is recently published in China. The book has over 100,000 words.

An overwhelming majority of netizens have badly criticized the publication of the book, saying that “Who would write a book on the advantages of a country’s political system when the country is half way through battling a war? What if the war becomes a losing battle, wouldn’t it all become rubbish? Didn’t Japan also promote themselves in a similar way after the Battle of Midway in 1942? They kept getting slapped in the face until an atomic bomb was dropped on them.”

Another netizen named “A sharp cut - what kind of human does that?” commented, “It’s clear how the Chinese Communist Party is severely impacted by the epidemic. Now they are desperately trying to instigate people to have faith, they must be aware of something. It seems ridiculous of the government to publish a book when the country is still battling an epidemic, but something might have indicated a trend that’s frightful to them.

Netizen "gray ghost" pointed out, "In the past, a celebration, instead of funeral, would be held when a disaster had come to an end. But nowadays it has become praising achievements and virtues when the disaster is not even over."

"This world is too crazy" left a comment, “How does one claim credits when the work is not even done? Now, this guy who personally directed the deployment but did not go to the affected area in person can't wait to publicize himself. Enough is enough. He wouldn’t even visit Beijing's infected neighborhoods, not to mention Wuhan! What a “true man!””

Excerpt: HKCNews
https://bit.ly/39zCGl8

Further reading:
Guangdong netizens skeptical of President Xi’s efforts in containing the Novel Coronavirus
https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/16537

#ChinesePropaganda #WuhanPneumonia #CoronavirusOutbreak #Xi #CCP

#Newspaper

Zhong Nanshan leads medical personnel in simplified procedures for "Expedited Entry into the CCP"
Scholar: To strengthen CCP's appearance in fighting the epidemic

(3 Mar) “I volunteer to join the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). I am ready to sacrifice myself for the party and the people, and will never betray the party. " On Monday afternoon, Zhong Nanshan - the head of the National Health Commission's team of experts - led the expedited oath-taking of Hubei frontline doctors and nurses to join CCP. The event was broadcast to Guangdong and Hubei on the internet.

At the same time, a group of senior party members from Tongji Hospital also granted "Expedited Entry into the CCP" to five female frontline nurses. Xinhua News Agency specifically mentioned that the five women who volunteered to join the CCP on the eve of International Women's Day (8 Mar) were outstanding role models and angels in white.

The purpose of "Expedited Entry into the CCP" is to simplify the procedure for membership in unusual situations such as during the war. The person is first sworn in to become a preliminary member. After completing their mission, the party will investigate them before becoming an official member.

Apart from swearing in new members, Xi Jinping and seven members of the Politburo Standing Committee took the lead in making donations last week. CCTV reported last Monday that the action received widespread support among party members. Every department and unit of the country "organised voluntary donations by CCP members and showed their care".

The press in the mainland has shone limelight on CCP members' achievements against the epidemic. A scholar believes this is propaganda that uses the image of frontline heroes to strengthen the CCP's appearance of fighting the epidemic. "Zhong Nanshan is a renowned scientist, a hero of the people. Casting him as a party member fighting in the frontlines seeks to weaken his neutral image from the past two months, even the past 17 years. His public image is diminished and replaced by the CCP. The leadership role of the CCP takes centre stage in the fight against the epidemic."

Source: i-Cable News
https://bit.ly/39xN250

#ChinesePropaganda #CCP #WuhanPneumonia #ZhongNanshan

WHO emphasizes that COVID-19 is not a 'worldwide pandemic' and praises China for doing well in curbing COVID-19 in her country. Those statements shock the world with embarrassment. Yet, no one is saying anything against WHO.

The deadly COVID-19 is spreading across the globe like wildfire with dozens of new cases recorded daily. The virus has broken out in various countries and led to panic buying. German Health Minister Jens Spahn warns that the new coronavirus has become a 'worldwide pandemic'. His warning acts like a big punch to both WHO and those who believe it.

What makes WHO misjudge the situation? Would WHO have acted differently had the headstream of COVID-19 come from other small countries? Would the situation have been better if WHO had warned that the virus be a 'worldwide pandemic' at the beginning?

Further reading:
https://www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-is-now-a-worldwide-pandemic-german-health-minister-says/a-52634082

#Newspaper

The World Health Organization (WHO) made a public statement last month that to avoid discriminative wording, calling the new coronavirus "Wuhan pneumonia" would be inappropriate. The virus should not be linked with its location. In the past couple days, Mike Pompeo, the US Secretary of State, publicly called it “Wuhan pneumonia”. He expressed “much dismay” towards communication from the Chinese government. Because China did not provide sufficient information, the US cannot enact a timely response to the epidemic.

Source: Stand News
https://bit.ly/38xErOF

#WuhanPneumonia #Coronavirus #Pompeo #WHO

⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️Watch
https://youtu.be/gdVsnouhGTU

The High Court Judged Banning Same-Sex Couples From Public Housing is "Violation of the Basic Law": Pro-Beijing Legislator Priscilla Leung Expressed Her Disappointment and Urged the Government to Seek Justice

A male Hong Kong resident and his male partner wedded overseas and applied for public housing in 2018 as an "ordinary family". The Housing Authority rejected their application under the "ordinary family" category due to same-sex marriage.

On 4 March, the High Court has ruled that married same-sex couples should be allowed to apply for public housing. The High Court also said that Housing Authority shall review their repsective policy which is unconstitutional and against the Basic Law, including Article 25, which says Hong Kong residents shall be equal before the law, and Article 22 of the Bill of Rights, which states that everyone is entitled to equal protection against discrimination on any grounds..

Source: RTHK #Mar5

#DailyUpdate #Mar9 #COVID19

COVID-19 Updates (9/3)

At the time of writing, the global number of infected has risen to at least 111,751 with 3888 deaths. China, South Korea, Iran, and Italy continue to be the most affected by the pandemic.

China is now reporting 80,739 cases with 3120 deaths. South Korea is reporting 7478 cases with 53 deaths. Italy is reporting 7375 cases and 366 deaths. Iran is reporting 7161 cases and 237 cases. Italy has surpassed Iran and become the third most affected country.

The total numbers of confirmed coronavirus cases in France, Germany and Spain have climbed to over 1000 cases, with 1209, 1164 and 1050 cases respectively.

The coronavirus COVID-19 is affecting 111 countries and territories around the world.

The Asian region qualifier of World Cup 2022, to be held in March and June is delayed.

In Hong Kong, one new case was confirmed. A total of 115 are reported in the city.

Thai ministry of tourism confirmed Hong Kong tourists are required to quarantine upon entry.

At least 27 people in Iran died from methanol poisoning after drinking highly concentrated alcohol as they believed that can tackle the Wuhan coronavirus.

Japan government is submitting a bill on Tuesday at the earliest, the bill authorizes Prime Minister Abe Shinzo to announce state of emergency to the country.

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said the goal of producing 10 million face masks per day can be achieved this week. There have been 8 days since the country confirmed its latest case.

Academia Sinica in Taiwan announced the ability to identify the coronavirus within 15-20 minutes. Regarding China claiming the research is done by Chinese scientists, director James Liao clarified Chinese experts were not involved in the project.

Chinese pulmonologist Zhong Nanshan estimated the epidemic would be continued until June.

The Olympic flame ignition ceremony for the Tokyo Olympic would be held behind the doors.

North Korean authorities confirmed around 10000 nationals are quarantined, 40% of them have ended. Chartered planes would be arranged to send foreigners back to their countries.

A cruise ship in Egypt has 45 confirmed cases.

First cases have been found in the Channel Islands, Albania and Brunei Darussalam.

The Marshall Islands, a country with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, announced ban of all air travellers for 2 weeks. Tourists from China, Japan, South Korea, Germany, France and Spain are banned by all means.

Source: Now News, Apple Daily, World Meter

#StockMarket
Asian markets plummet: Shenzhen and Shanghai Composite Indexes Fell 3%

//Stock markets in Asia turned into a sea of red on Monday, 9 March, as Tokyo index ending below the 20,000 level and Shanghai losing over 3 percent over fears over the new coronavirus, while a plunge in oil prices battered energy firms.

Hong Kong stocks tanked over 4 percent as it headed towards close.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index sank slightly over 3 percent, to 2,943 while the Shenzhen Composite Index fell 3.8 percent, to 1,842...

"It was like panic selling," said Shinichi Yamamoto, a broker at Okasan Securities in Tokyo...

Bank of Japan governor Haruhiko Kuroda told parliament: "Investor sentiment is deteriorating as uncertainty widens due to the spread of infections of the new coronavirus."

Australian stocks plunged more than seven percent. The benchmark ASX 200 dropped 7.3 percent, to close at 5,760.//

Source: AFP; RTHK #Mar9