Hong Kong Finally Takes Action

Carrie Lam and her senior ministers briefed the media on the latest measures

Things are (finally) getting serious in Hong Kong with regards to the Wuhan coronavirus that has now claimed 106 lives and over 4,680 cases worldwide. There were 1,200 new cases in Wuhan alone today. Hong Kong has eight confirmed cases.

Railway services will be cut, while flights will be halved

Today the Hong Kong government has instructed civil servants who aren't frontline service staff that they can work from home until at least February 10; some companies are following suit. In many cases, these employees don't have company laptops or access to the special computer systems they need to use, which means they will have an extended holiday.

Late this afternoon Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor held a press conference with senior members of her cabinet and announced travel to and from the mainland would be drastically cut, with flights reduced by half, all ferry services suspended, and trains from West Kowloon and the through train to Guangzhou from Hung Hom would be stopped.

While tour groups to Hong Kong have already been suspended, no more individual visas to the city will be issued.

This high-speed train will stop service from Thursday

It's not a complete closure of all border checkpoints (only about 9 percent), but it is finally a start for Lam to act on the advice of the infectious disease experts and legislators from the entire political spectrum who are urging her to do the right thing for the safety of Hongkongers.

However, she really needs to do more to combat against fake news, and spent the first part of her press conference berating people for spreading rumours.

She really needs to be more transparent, which means speaking more frequently and clearly. At the very least Lam or her ministers should update the media once a day, twice would be better... or is she too busy to consider doing that?

The more you communicate, the more your message comes across.

Newly refurbished Museum of Art will be shut temporarily

Or maybe because the government keeps flip flopping that the Lam administration is unclear on its own position?

In addition the government will not use the newly-completed housing estate in Fanling for quarantine purposes... perhaps a decision made too late. Some people in the media have thrown out the idea of using Disneyland as a quarantine area. It's isolated, self sufficient and hey, it's cheerful too. Why not?

Just saw news that the Hong Kong-Macau ferries will be suspended from Thursday, while all Hong Kong libraries, museums, sports centres and swimming pools will be closed until further notice.

Meanwhile in China, Dr Zhong Nanshan who discovered SARS over 17 years ago believes the current coronavirus will peak in a week to 10 days, which is much earlier than what Dr Gabriel Leung at the University of Hong Kong had predicted, which was April or May.

Dr Zhong Nanshan predicts the coronavirus peaking very soon

Who is right? We will find out soon enough.

Cryptically, Lam said in the press conference: "If you asked me a week ago, I might not have the determination to roll out the measures we rolled out today and yesterday."

Does that mean she didn't think she had to take the Wuhan coronavirus that seriously?

Where was she in 2003?