Carrie Lam on the Defensive

Lam speaking at her daily press briefing today

While the tide is turning for the better day by day in the pandemic, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor is getting a political raking over the coals, particularly from the pro-establishment who have been backing her all along, but now are questioning how she intends to wrestle the fifth wave of the pandemic down for good.

The numbers are looking better today -- 8,035 cases, and 151 deaths (of which 130 are from the past 24 hours, 21 backlogged) -- but Lam has backtracked or flip-flopped, or U-turned on many decisions that has made the pro-Beijing camp frustrated that she doesn't seem to have people or the economy's interests at heart.

Businesses have had a difficult time with Covid-19

It has been reported Lam will face a grilling tomorrow by lawmakers on her pandemic policies. 

Everyone get out the popcorn...

But one can expect Lam to be on the defensive and strongly so, swatting away any annoying accusations with pithy statements that raise eyebrows.

One example is in recent days, Bernard Chan, convenor of the Executive Council, Lam's de facto cabinet, conceded many multinational companies that had used Hong Kong as their Asian base have already moved to rival cities like Singapore and Dubai, and the chances of them returning were slim, unless the Greater China market was their focus.

"If they had moved to other places such as Dubai and Singapore for a while, their chances of moving back are significantly lower because moving back will be quite a complicated process," he said. "I think we cannot stick to the [current] quarantine arrangement for a long time."

When a reporter asked Lam about Chan's comments, she said:

Chan says multinationals have left Hong Kong

"I can tell you that although he is ExCo Convenor, he is expressing his personal views. Because there are so many people with so many views on this anti-epidemic issue, especially about Hong Kong being an international city, whether we should open up more, whether we should be worried about people leaving Hong Kong. The more authoritative stance could come only from me and the Hong Kong SAR government," she replied.

Ouch. 

"I would advise that you only treat Mr Chan's views as his personal views, especially as he comes from the financial sector, certainly his view will be influenced by his colleagues and peers in the financial sector," Lam continued. 

"But at the end of the day, as I said, our ultimate objective for Hong Kong is to suppress the fifth wave as soon as possible and then we would aim to resume some travel into the mainland and preferably also with overseas so that business could resume and the economy could bounce back."

Many firms have moved to Singapore and Dubai

Chan is pointing out the fact that many multinational companies have moved out of Hong Kong and may never come back. How is that a personal view? There have already been many articles written about this, how 50 per cent of European companies are planning to leave the city or only have a smaller presence.

Businesses cannot wait for Hong Kong to open up anymore. Lam is dreaming if she thinks the city's economy will just bounce back to what it was before.

Lam seems to have no idea what is really going on, as she is so focused on fulfilling Beijing's expectations, or tired of hearing other people's opinions of how things could be done better.

They are only trying to help...

Two Charged for Misleading Contact-Tracing Information

The first local mutant virus strain was found in Jordan in April

A 29-year-old engineer who came back to Hong Kong on holiday from working in Dubai has been charged along with his 31-year-old female friend for withholding details or providing misleading information after it was discovered they were carrying a mutant strain of Covid-19 in the community.

They were arrested Saturday morning taken to Yau Ma Tei police station, the man charged with giving misleading information, the woman for refusing to provide more detailed information.

The pair were taken to Yau Ma Tei police station

It was recently discovered there was a link between the couple and three domestic helpers who were also infected with the same strain of the mutated virus.

The man and his girlfriend, who were infected around three weeks ago, met relatives in Chai Wan, and then three people from that gathering met with the three domestic helpers a few days later in Tung Chung.

Under the Prevention and Control of Disease Ordinance, anyone who knowingly gives false or misleading information in such matters -- including whereabouts, medical history and contact with others -- faces a HK$10,000 fine and six months in jail.

It's good the authorities are cracking down on those who have been found to be withholding information, as this is about protecting public health.

How about charges for those dancing tai tais?

But what about those tai tais and their friends who danced nights away mask-less in dance clubs in November? They refused to reveal all the people they came into contact with. Why not prosecute them? They are responsible for the extended fourth wave we all had to go through...

 

 

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...