Carrie Announces More Relief Measures

Carrie Lam announced more relief measures for businesses to stay afloat

So many things to write about today, but perhaps most importantly a belated response from the government for more bailout measures to keep Hong Kong's economy going.

It is spending HK$137.5 billion (US$18 billion) on a raft of measures, including helping employers pay their employees HK$9,000 (US$1,160) of their monthly wages for six months. Only those companies that contribute to the Mandatory Provident Fund are eligible and they must promise not to lay off any workers.

There were questions from the media about possible loopholes, but Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said if the list of employers was made public then employees could expect that money. This means 1.5 million workers would benefit from this scheme.

1.5 million workers could get HK$9,000 from the government

She stressed this was the third time the government was making an effort to buoy the economy, though it will cause the budget deficit to surge to HK$276.6 billion, equivalent to 9.6 percent of  gross domestic product.

"We have to try our best to prevent the closure of businesses or large-scale job cuts," Lam said as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases reached 960.

"In these unprecedented circumstances, the government must have some unprecedented responses -- to help businesses to survive, safeguard employment, and minimize the burden on businesses and citizens."

And about that controversial pay raise? Lam announced she and her senior ministers would take a 10 percent paycut for a year, which means she will be making HK$390,000 per month, or HK$4.68 million a year.

It took her long enough to decide to do that, but perhaps better late than never?

Almost 450 police officers quit last year, up 38.5 percent

Another interesting piece of news was reported that is protest related: Almost 450 officer quit during the eight months of unrest, while new hires fell short of targets.

The police force claimed it was not surprised by the large number, and added it still received some 10,000 applications.

In his budget announced in February, the financial secretary approved a 7 percent budget increase in police manpower for the next financial year, including an extra 2,543 posts created.

The Security Bureau defended the proposed budget increase, explaining that 446 officers not expected to leave the service had quit between June and February this year, an increase of 38.5 percent from the same period last year.

"For these officers, their reasons for leaving include resignation during training, early retirement, family and personal reasons," the bureau said in reply.

Were some of those "personal reasons" related to the protests?

And finally, today the lockdown on Wuhan was lifted, and as expected, some 55,000 people left the city by train, and on 100 commercial flights. People were definitely fleeing Wuhan after being shut at home since January 23.

Lots of people fled Wuhan today with the lockdown lifted

However... where are they going? There are a lot of fears many of them to show up in Hong Kong and the media pressed health officials about why they let passengers from Wuhan go home with a plastic bottle to collect the saliva sample and not have them stay at AsiaWorld-Expo to conduct the saliva test and wait for the results.

But health officials insisted that the risk assessment was low.

"Among the first batch of returnees from Wuhan earlier, only one person tested positive among some 400," Dr Chui Tak-yi, Undersecretary for Food and Health said.

However reporters in the press conference were not impressed, as anyone from anywhere could have the virus; perhaps health officials will change their mind tomorrow?