Living with Covid Does Not Violate NSL

77 local cases of Covid-19 were detected, many untraceable

Some top Hong Kong infectious disease experts have been hinting publicly that it is time that Hong Kong live with Covid-19, as "zero-Covid" is not attainable in the long run.

Pro-Beijing lawmaker Junius Ho Kwan-yiu jumped on this, suggesting that the strategy should be viewed as violating the national security law.

Ho suggested living with Covid violated NSL

When he spoke to the media on Saturday, he explained guarding against the importation of cases and the resurgence of domestic infections is a national-level strategy, and anti-pandemic measures are equal to defence and diplomacy.

Therefore, the strategy of "living with Covid" may "breach national defence and disrupt the order of the society," he continued.

However, the government issued a statement on Sunday clarifying that "general remarks and discussion" on the effectiveness of the official zero-Covid strategy were not illegal.

"Hong Kong must cut the transmission chains as quickly as possible, with an aim of achieving dynamic zero infection, otherwise the consequences could be dire," the statement added.

Chuang warned about gathering for CNY

This is the state of the city now -- where anything could be considered violating the national security law and the government has to issue a statement to deny it.

At least that's one thing that's not related to the national security law, but still...

In the meantime Hong Kong recorded 81 new cases -- first time in double digits in a week -- 77 of which are local. There are 70 preliminary positive cases.

"Although the number of daily cases is declining, the proportion of untraceable cases has increased," said Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the Centre for Health Protection's communicable disease branch.

"The transmission chains in the community remain unclear; we do not know what some of the transmission paths were."

Govt says living with Covid not illegal

She also asked that families be careful when gathering for the Lunar New Year festivities, especially around seniors who may not have been vaccinated yet. "If they get infected, there may be complications," Chuang said.

You don't say!