New Covid-19 Cases and June 4 Vigil Banned

Three women were infected with the virus at this warehouse

Hongkongers are on high alert again after three local residents were tested positive for the coronavirus. Two women worked at Kerry Logistics warehouse in Kwai Chung, and a paramedic handling the two patients also got infected.

The two women are linked to a 34-year-old woman who tested weak positive for the virus on Sunday, and her 56-year-old husband is positive too.

Dr Chui said hand hygiene and masks important

There are now 1,087 cases in Hong Kong.

Reporters asked health officials if further social distancing measures needed to be applied, but they repeatedly stressed individuals to be diligent about hygiene, frequent hand washing and wearing masks.

Infectious diseases expert Dr Ho Pak-leung from the University of Hong Kong suggests perhaps the women at the warehouse may have come into contact with someone who may have violated home quarantine measures, or recovered coronavirus patients who may have relapsed.

There are now 1,087 cases in Hong Kong

"The government should not have a false sense of security and think these cases will not cause a community outbreak," Ho said.

He urged officials to step up monitoring of those undergoing home quarantine and recovered patients.

While Ho said restaurants should continue to limit gatherings of eight per table, when it comes to people being outdoors, as long as they are wearing a mask it is not necessary to limit gatherings.

So for the Hong Kong police to ban this Thursday's candlelight vigil in Victoria Park to mark the 31st anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre due to Covid-19 is regrettable.

It claimed that people could not gather in groups of bigger than eight, and that any large assemblies could increase infection risks for the public.

The June 4 candlelight vigil is banned this year

Pan-democrat Lee Cheuk-yan, who chairs the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, has said the government's extension of the restriction on gatherings a political one, pointing out schools had started to reopen and allowed larger religious gatherings.

At a press conference following Monday's decision, Lee said the police were simply using the virus as a pretext to do something they had intended to do.

"This year, on the 31st anniversary [of Tiananmen Square], without even having the national security law in place, [the vigil] was banned by the police in the name of the virus," said Lee.

"We believe this is totally unreasonable and unscientific, because everything is normal in Hong Kong. They are just using this excuse to suppress our rally," he added.

Lee says police ban is political

Lee said whether the vigil was allowed or not was a "litmus test" for the "one country, two systems" principle.

In any event, organizers have called for people to join an online commemoration and people can pick up candles from 60 booths around the city that day. The program includes observing a minute of silence at 8.09pm.

Sadly last year might be the last vigil Hongkongers could gather to mark the horrific and tragic events of June 1989. We may see more "last time" events this year...