#Newspaper

Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan — once heralded for early successes in battling the pandemic — are now confronting a new wave of coronavirus cases, largely fueled by infections coming from elsewhere.

The first confirmed cases in all three places were connected to people who had travelled to Wuhan, where the pandemic began, followed by small clusters of cases among residents with no travel history.

This article compares and analysis in details the epidemic in these three places, with well illustrated graphs.

Full Article: NYTimes, (09-Apr)
https://nyti.ms/2V4FCRX

#HongKong #Taiwan #Singapore #Pandemic #TravelBan #Quarantine

#CoronavirusOutbreak #FailedState
Experts conclude that Government-Granted Quarantine Exemption has Caused the 3rd wave of Coronavirus Outbreak

Gilman Siu-kit, an assistant professor of Health Technology and Informatics Department in #PolyU, and his team took random sampling from twenty-six patients in this wave of the outbreak. Results showed the mutation in the core gene (D614G) of COVID-19 in all samples.

Sampling included crews from Kazakhstan and four large local infection clusters and 19 samples showed exactly the same results. The conclusion is that the source of the third outbreak, which according to government experts including Yuen Kwok-Yung, David, Hui Shu-cheong, and Gabriel Matthew Leung, was those people exempted from compulsory quarantine by government policy.

Source: Apple Daily #Jul26
#Quarantine #Exemption

#Coronavirus #Border
Mainland Chinese Woman Awaiting Deportation in Hong Kong is Found Postive for Covid After Contacting 23 Officers

According to the Health authorities in Hong Kong, on November 1, they found 7 imported cases of Covid19 in the city.

Among them, a 42-year-old mainland woman awaiting deportation was found positive with Covid-19. The woman was arrested on October 28 during an anti-prostitution operation.

The police said 23 officers were in contact with her and four officers need to be quarantined, due to close contact.

Source: RTHK #Nov1
Image: Cupid News

#Deportation #quarantine

#FailedState #CoronavirusPandemic
Control and Tightening Control: HK Government's Latest Responses to the Pandemic

The Hong Kong SAR government refused to grant HKD1.5m to a community cleanliness campaign approved by Southern District Council for anti-pandemic purpose.

This is not the first time where the government refused to operate with the directly-elected district councillors, of which the pro-democracy camp constitutes the majority in all 18 District Councils in Hong Kong.

Read more:
https://bit.ly/2K0nAgZ

Meanwhile, the government claimed the need to "tighten anti-pandemic control". The Health Authority required travellers arriving in Hong Kong to undergo quarantine in hotels, i.e. home quarantine is not allowed. The regulation, however, exempts travellers arriving from China.

Read more:
https://bit.ly/2GO9ZrC

The Hong Kong government will release an mobile application to monitor citizens' travel records on Nov 16, 2020. The government claims that data such as personal information and GPS location would not be collected, and privacy would be respected. Citizens can voluntarily download and use the app.

The development of the app had cost HKD 1m.

The HK government also mentioned a plan to exempt Hong Kong residents in China from the 14-day compulsory quarantine when returning to Hong Kong, starting from Nov 23, 2020.

Read more:
https://bit.ly/32Af6U9

Source: InMedia #Nov11

Image: Stand News

#DistrictCouncil #Discriminatiom #HealthCode #Quarantine

#FailedState
#FoodPoisoning in #Quarantine Centre Due to Poor Hygiene

On May 7, 2021, widespread food poisoning occurred at Penny’s Bay Quarantine Centre in Hong Kong, following the government's implementation of mass quarantine. Many civilians under quarantine said they suffered from diarrhea after eating the meals provided by the government.

Low quality and poor hygiene are common sight in Hong Kong’s quarantine centres that are managed by the authorities, as tantalising images of the meals spread on the internet. Netizens described the steamed meat as "brick-like", just as moulded fruits were also sighted.

Ray Chui, President of the Institution of Dining Art, said on the Commercial Radio podcast "On a Clear Day", that he suspected the hygiene problems are related to the logistics of these meals.

He believed the government should change its “lowest bid wins” policy to improve the quality of its meals.

Answering media's inquiry, the Department of Health in Hong Kong said the meals from the concerned food supplier #DannyCatering will no longer be served. The same caterer has also caused food poisoning to 20 primary school students in 2019 due to hygiene issues.

When asked if the Department has sought contractors through Open Tendering, the government only replied by saying that the Department welcomed tender offers, admitting they didn’t follow such procedures.

Source: Stand News #May10
https://bit.ly/2RA6xG9
https://bit.ly/3bnJsxs

#FailedState
Strict Covid-19 curbs leave Hong Kong 'indefinitely trapped', #EUChamber says

//The European Chamber of Commerce (#ECC) in Hong Kong sent the letter to Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam on Thursday, Aug 19, 2020, calling the city's newly tightened quarantine rules a "significant setback" following a quickly abandoned attempt to relax some of the world's strictest requirements for inbound travellers.

The rules include mandatory quarantine hotel stays of as long as 21 days, as well as rigid testing and isolation policies that require infected people to be hospitalised and most close contacts sent to quarantine facilities. Most visitors, whether for business or tourism, are not allowed.

"We are of the view that Hong Kong must open itself sooner rather than later or this new quarantine regime could lead many in the international community to question if they want to remain indefinitely trapped in Hong Kong when the rest of the world is moving on," Mr #FrederikGollob, chairman of the chamber's board of directors, wrote.

"This concern amongst the international business community could pose, undoubtedly, a growing threat to Hong Kong's status as an international business centre."//

Source: Straits Times #Aug20

www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/strict-covid-19-curbs-leave-hong-kong-indefinitely-trapped-eu-chamber-says

#Pandemic #Covid19 #Quarantine

#FailedState
Hong Kong quarantine pushes Cathay pilots to 'breaking point'

//#CathayPacific has been hit by a wave of pilot resignations in recent weeks as resentment over Hong Kong's strict quarantine regime boils over and crew scramble for emerging opportunities overseas.

The departures come as Hong Kong ties itself to Beijing's closed-border zero-Covid strategy - a move that has kept the city coronavirus-free but internationally isolated.

Hong Kong's leaders say normalising travel with China must come before the rest of the world, a strategy that has caused growing alarm within multinationals in a finance hub that dubs itself "Asia's World City".

AFP interviewed four Cathay pilots who requested anonymity. Each said they knew more than a dozen colleagues who had resigned in the last few weeks.

Pilots fear Hong Kong's future as one of Asia's busiest transport hubs is now at risk.

"Once airlines move infrastructure like technicians, ground crew and pilots out of Hong Kong to places like Seoul and Bangkok, trust me, they're not coming back," one pilot said.

One pilot who flies commercial said he had been unable to see his family overseas for more than 20 months because of the quarantine restrictions and his need to stay flying to top up his depleted salary.

He said he felt Hong Kong's leaders have abandoned the idea of the city being an international hub at the request of "our overlords to the north" - a reference to Beijing.

"I love Hong Kong but if we're not going to plan our way out of this with a roadmap the question becomes what am I doing here?" he said.

"I can't take another year of this."//

Image: Stand News
Source: AFP; Straits Times #Dec2

https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/hong-kong-quarantine-pushes-cathay-pilots-to-breaking-point

#Beijing #Covid19 #Pandemic #Quarantine #Pilot #Resignation

#WuhanPneumonia #HumanitarianCrisis
COVID19 Quarantine Center in Hong Kong, a Torture to Patients: "No One would Remember Us"

#FailedState #PennysBay #Quarantine

Source: Facebook; Channel C HK; #Feb23

Read more
⬇️⬇️⬇️

#WuhanPneumonia #HumanitarianCrisis
COVID19 Quarantine Center in Hong Kong, a Torture to Patients: "No One would Remember Us"

A video of a distraught woman inside Hong Kong's COVID-19 quarantine center has gone viral on social media on Feb 22.

The video shows the woman in her flip flops at Penny's Bay, Hong Kong's main quarantine facility, breaking down in tears and yelling in desperation as she frantically looked for a way out.

Several staff members, clad in protective gear, tried unsuccessfully to calm her down and persuade her to return to her room. She eventually lashed out and kicked at a staff member who was apparently trying to approach her.

Online media Channel C interviewed another patient, Ms. P, who is also undergoing quarantine in the Penny’s Bay Center. Ms. P said that she totally understood the woman’s desperation, adding that she was also feeling very depressed during her stay.

In fact, distressed patients crying, shouting, yelling in their rooms or along the walkways are a daily occurrence in the center, she said.

A man even attempted suicide by drinking a bottle of disinfectant, Ms. P added.

“The worst thing here is you're easily forgotten,” Ms. P said. When she was admitted into the facility, she made tens of phone calls and waited for 4 days before her initial test bottle was delivered. No one came back to pick it up until she made another round of phone calls, until she finally reached medical staff.

When her quarantine period ended on Feb 19, the facility did not arrange for her to leave, and she spent another 3 days on the phone trying to contact staff - again, receiving no reply. She was elated when staff finally notified her on Feb 21 that she could leave.

However, just before she boarded the bus, she was turned away because she was not given a doctor's note. She watched all the buses leave before being sent back to her room.

"We were all very scared," she said on the interview, her voice breaking, "Once we're back in our rooms, no one would remember us."

However, she was sympathetic to the medical staff and other supporting staff members on the site. “They are suffering just like us. The staff member who came to deliver my documents was soaked in the rain.”

Ms. P questioned the purpose of putting Hong Kong people in quarantine centers where they are not properly taken care of.

She stressed that the costs and suffering inflicted upon so many citizens grossly outweigh any foreseeable benefits.

Source: Facebook; Channel C HK; #Feb23
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42SwTQPrtF8

#FailedState #PennysBay #Quarantine