Hong Kong Worries of Mutant Strain Spread

Health workers tested residents in this building in Jordan

 

The latest update on the coronavirus pandemic in Hong Kong is not good. Today the city logged 30 cases, 29 of which were imported, 22 of which were from India.

And reported today, shocking news of 47 passengers on a Vistara flight on April 4 from New Delhi to Hong Kong tested positive for the virus. Needless to say that airline, and from April 20 any flights from India, Pakistan and the Philippines are banned from coming into Hong Kong for 14 days.

A mutant strain of the virus may be spreading

There are concerns the supposed tests they took before boarding were either false negative, or completely fake. They were found to be positive while in hotel quarantine. Four other cases today were from Indonesia, and one each from Egypt, Canada and the Philippines.

One new local case was a 31-year-old woman who is friends with a man who was reported yesterday to be the first locally to carry the N501Y mutant strain of the virus. It was discovered she was positive while in government quarantine and was a close contact of the man.

The 29-year-old man is an engineer who works in Dubai, came back to the city on March 19 and finished his quarantine on April 8, during which he tested negative.

After he finished the three-week quarantine, he went to stay with his friend, the woman who is the latest local case. He also ate in a restaurant in the basement of Chungking Mansions, and visited two banks on Nathan Road. He also went to Cheung Chau and ate seafood there.

Chan says man may have been infected in Dubai

It was when he was getting ready to go back to Dubai, that he got tested for his trip and found he was positive.

"We need to know how he got infected," said Dr Sophia Chan Siu-chee, the Secretary for Food and Health. 

"We have already tightened our passenger flight suspension mechanism on April 14 because even though some countries have seen a decline in infections after starting their vaccination programs, overall, mutant strains are still spreading and that makes us nervous [about importing such cases]."

Chan said the authorities are not ruling out he may have been infected in Dubai and carried the strain in an unusually long incubation period. He may also have been infected while in the airport or in hotel quarantine.

One man recently got three jabs instead of two

There are fears the mutant strain may have spread into the general population, and so it is crucial to test all the staff in the quarantine hotel, the banks, the restaurants and in the building in Jordan he stayed in with his friend. So far residents of that building have tested negative.

And then there are some really dumb people. A 32-year-old man got his first dose of the BioNTech vaccine on March 12, then on March 28 went to a private clinic to get the Sinovac jab, then on April 11 gets his second BioNTech jab. 

Why did he do that?

Either he loves injections or is completely clueless that you don't mix vaccines. If he thinks he is covering all his bases he's got it all wrong...

Perhaps a case like this was bound to surface eventually? 

Unbelievable...

 

Fact of the Day: HK$5M in Fines

Hanging out at the beach means a visit from the authorities

The five-day Easter/Qing Ming break is over, and the Hong Kong government has netted HK$5 million (US$643,000) in fines because 980 residents violated social-distancing regulations.

The police gave out the most fines at 959 fixed-penalty notices, while the Leisure and Cultural Services Department issued 14,000 verbal warnings and 21 fines while inspecting its venues.

HK$5 million in fines were issued this holiday

During Easter break, some of the raids included illegal gambling halls, restaurants, unlicensed bars and party rooms, with 48 percent of the fines issued in Kowloon West.

Currently bars, karaoke, and party rooms remain closed, while people can dine four to a table in restaurants until 10pm.

With bars having been forced to close for over 200 days over the past 12 months, some bar operators are holding a hunger strike in a bid to get the government to lift restrictions on their premises. However, the authorities seem unmoved by their action, even though they have a strong argument that restaurants have been allowed to operate in the evenings.

Meanwhile during the holiday, people flocked to beaches and the outlying islands. There were big lines for the ferries to Cheung Chau and Peng Chau, and Sai Kung pier looked packed. People also enjoyed staycations in hotels and dined out in restaurants.

People lining up at Lai Chi Kok for their jab

While today there were seven new coronavirus cases, three of which were local, health experts caution that there may be a spike in cases in the next few days.

The surges and drops in cases seem never ending, and yet Hongkongers are not keen on getting the vaccine, which is frustrating to say the least.

The sooner Hong Kong has at least 70 percent of its residents vaccinated, the sooner restrictions can be lifted and perhaps build a stronger case for the city to take part in travel bubbles with other countries.

But at the rate we're going, it make take till next year...

 

 

Cheung Chau Fighting Spirit

Cheung Chau resident Kwok Cheuk-in regularly takes the government to court

Meet Kwok Cheuk-kin. He's a 74-year-old former civil servant who likes to spend his retirement challenging the government on its policies in court.

"Many people criticize me for wasting public money. I find that the government wastes more money than me," he says. "They spend large amounts on useless consultations, and waste money on questionable infrastructure. I just use the government's money to fix its problems."

He filed his first application in 2006, when he asked the court to review the system of ferry-fare increases on the route between Central and Cheung Chau; he lost.

Kwok claims to have filed more than 20 applications, with legal-aid representation for eight of them.

"None of my applications are for my personal gain, and no one ever uses me. I understand the legal points in every application," he says.

I saw a short documentary about him a year ago, and the Cheung Chau resident regularly helps elderly people on the island by writing letters for them. He goes to Hong Kong Island everyday to read in the public libraries for researching his court challenges.

While he admits losing most of his cases, Kwok believes it's important to challenge the government to raise concerns about social issues.

"If you don't try, you will just sit there and wait to die. If you try, at least there is a chance," he says.

We love that fighting attitude. The Hong Kong spirit is still alive and well.

An Afternoon in Cheung Chau

Boats in various colours lined up along the beach at Cheung Chau

My mom is visiting these few weeks and today we were planning to go to Yuen Long and eat some local dishes there. However our transportation didn't work out (long story) so we decided at the spur of the moment to go to Cheung Chau for lunch.

It's a place my mom hasn't visited in around 50 years since she was a student, and the weather was just perfect to be outside. We happened to catch the 12.15pm ferry which took almost an hour to get there.

When these orangey-red flowers bloom, spring is here!

The last time my mom was there was to visit a classmate of hers whose family lived on the outlying island. She remembers it having one-storey houses so she was surprised to see it quite developed, with three-storey houses and the waterfront lined with souvenir stands and restaurants.

We wandered down the promenade and saw the many fishing boats moored there, and the small stands selling the famous Cheung Chau bun-themed souvenirs, cloth bags that look like colourful fish and other handicrafts.

The restaurants are doing a brisk business, with staff holding out menus and quoting prices for two seafood dishes and a vegetable one. The prices ranged from HK$118 ($15.20) to HK$198 and we picked the one which was busiest -- which was the cheapest one!

Fantastic steamed fish with black bean sauce

Most of the outdoor tables were occupied so we sat inside -- with the air conditioning and fans turned on. We ordered prawns, sliced in half and steamed with loads of pan-fried garlic, but it was a pity they were slightly overcooked and so the meat was limp. However the steamed fish, butterfly, with black bean sauce was excellent and great with a bowl of rice.

The vegetable dish came free and we asked for choi sum that were the young shoots so they were delicious with again lots of minced garlic. However after our mini feast we weren't quite full (sharing a bowl of rice), so we also ordered a seafood wok, that was basically braised tofu with prawns, fish fillets, squid and vegetables.

Here the prawns were crunchy, and the tofu silky delicious. Needless to say we were stuffed by the end of that for HK$160! We waddled out and then wandered around a bit to walk off the lunch.

Constructing the Cheung Chau bun tower

We passed by the basketball court where men were constructing the steel conical frame for the upcoming Cheung Chau Bun Festival from May 3-7. People compete to scramble up to the top of the bun tower (made of plastic buns!) for bragging rights.

Visitors descend on Cheung Chau during this period and bakeries do a brisk business selling those famous buns that I have yet to try.

Next to the basketball court a giant bamboo theatre was being erected with a stage at one end and a slope towards it for the audience to sit. Here Cantonese operas will be performed during the same period.

And also nearby is the local temple, though the building is new-looking, the altar is quite old...

A makeshift theatre nearby being built out of bamboo

We passed by the beach and saw a golden retriever enjoying being in the water. He was constantly wagging his tail, but didn't seem to have any goal in mind, just hanging out in the water, then coming out, shaking all the water off, rolling in the sand and then repeat. Bless his owner who must have a heck of a time washing him afterwards...

The next stop was the snack street and little boutiques selling handmade items like jewellery and batik shirts, leather bags and postcards. These were fun to look at, but for the most part quite expensive.

We made it back to the ferry pier with time to spare before the next ferry and spied the famous fish ball stand didn't have a lineup and decided to buy a cattie of fishballs to take home to try.

The temple has a mix of old and new

And since we were so full from lunch we decided to have a simple dinner of vermicelli, fishballs and Chinese spinach with turkey broth. The fish balls aren't smooth like those at Tsui Wah, but quite chewy. Yum!

Up to the Same Tricks

TVB host Nat Chan Pak-cheung hanging out with Patrick Tse Yin

Ever since Ricky Wong Wai-kay lost the bid for a free-to-air TV license for HKTV, Hong Kong people began complaining louder about the low quality of programming on TVB, even though it makes the most money.

Its rival ATV is a distant second and so the public was hoping HKTV would give TVB a run for its money -- literally.

However it was not to be, though people were still keen to make TVB work harder.

This past week TVB broadcast its 46th anniversary charity show, and before the event, flamboyant host Nat Chan Pak-cheung pledged he would crawl home on his knees if the show only had a three-point rating.

By throwing down the gauntlet, Chan inspired a campaign to boycott the annual show and track down the households that were monitored for ratings. Chan later pledged he would donate HK$3 million to charity if the ratings hit 30 points.

In the end he just squeaked by at 31 points, with an average rating of 29 points of 1.856 million viewers and a 95 percent free-TV audience share for TVB.

Does this mean the majority of Hong Kong people love bad TV?

We see TVB is creating more budget programs like the one we saw tonight.

Magic is a perennial favourite, but the TV station didn't build a special set for the show. Instead the three hosts went on location to different places in Hong Kong to get magicians to do tricks in front of passersby.

The first place was Cheung Chau where they met with a magician from the outlying island. His first trick was pointing to a fishing boat in the distance with a red T-shirt hanging on it.

From the viewer's perspective his hand covered up the boat, but then in an instant the T-shirt was not on the boat but on his body!

Another was literally making sandcastles on the beach by lifting a cloth off the sand. How he did that I had no clue.

Then the trio of hosts went to Sham Shui Po where another magician lit up light bulb tubes like light sabres without any wires, while another in Mongkok made fish balls appear in a paper bowl with curry sauce. Or how about the magician putting his hands in a tank with just one small fish and then opening his hands to release a whole school of fish?

The only bizarre one was having a pretty TVB starlet change clothes literally in seconds. She walked into one changing room and in two to three seconds wore a new outfit. Then she walked towards the camera and was covered up by a clothes rack and presto! A new set of clothing.

Towards the end she wore a dark blue dress and for the finale a white dress on top and you could see the blue dress underneath...

The show format was very similar to Cris Angel and a Taiwanese magician Lu Chen who are in restaurants or hotel lobbies doing tricks in front of live audiences, but the TVB one is set in Hong Kong.

How hard is it to copy what's already been done?

Visit to Cheung Chau

We took the Xin Fei or "New Flight" over to Cheung Chau

After shaming me for not having ever visited Cheung Chau in the combined 10 years I've lived in Hong Kong, YTSL finally took me there with two other friends.

Lots of trinkets for sale including Cheung Chau "buns"

We took the 12.15 ferry over and tried to sit out in the back but there were no more seats and when we tried to take the plastic chairs from inside, we discovered they were bolted down -- probably to prevent them from falling overboard.

Many people like visiting this outlying island because it's not too developed though in recent years more and more people come to hang out particularly on the weekends and special events like the Cheung Chau Bun Festival.

Thankfully the humidity has dropped in the last few weeks so it was very pleasant to walk around despite it hovering around 30 degrees. From the ferry pier we walked to the left and along the praya saw many small shops selling Cheung Chau bun coin bags, cushions and key chains, fish pockets made of fabric and dried seafood.

Our steamed fish that cost HK$100!

Further down were a series of restaurants, mostly offering seafood on the menu. We headed to YTSL's favourite eatery here and promptly ordered lots of food: Steamed fish, squid stir-fried with garlic, steamed prawns with chillis and soy sauce, seafood soup, a plate of tong choi and some deep-fried vegetable wrap with mayonnaise that she raved about.

Everything was pretty good, particularly the seafood soup that included fish, that made the broth sweet, as well as tofu, mushrooms and some small vegetables. The steamed fish was only slightly overcooked, while the prawns and squid were fine. Deep-fried vegetables dipped in mayonnaise weren't my thing so YTSL had my share...

Cooked chickens hanging out on the way to the beach

We were pretty full with rice and a bottle of beer and amazed that the bill came to HK$410.

To walk off our lunch, we headed towards the beach and saw a few temples, large and small along the way, as well as some chickens hanging about...

The beach wasn't crowded but had many people taking in the sunshine and kids making sand castles. There were also some people para-surfing, which looked like a total body workout. Further down the beach is an area where Olympic gold medallist Lee Lai-shan's uncle has a windsurfing school and there are windsurfing memorial parks, with the word "memorial" a bit strange...

A para surfer catching some strong winds

Around the corner was a snack street and here people were snapping up all kinds of traditional Chinese puddings, or next door was an intriguing potato chip on a stick -- a potato peeled in such a way that the swirls wrapped around a stick and were deep-fried and customers could add their own toppings. There was also frozen fruit on a stick, or popsicles made with watermelon juice and a few bits of fruit inside it too.

We walked back towards the ferry pier and in the square there was a massive line up for fish balls, apparently the most famous shop on the island. I've heard mixed reviews, some saying they're fantastic, others that the fish balls are nothing special. But there were so many people in line so you have to wonder...

A cute little fire services truck going past the ferry pier

It was already 3.45pm when we boarded the fast ferry back to Central. I'm sure there's many other parts of the island I still need to explore, but it was enough to give me an idea of why people love the place (laid back and quiet). Though I have to say my favourite was seeing the small ambulance and fire truck! Almost like toy cars!