Covid Cases Continue to Rise

Some of the isolation units will be in these housing blocks

Today over 17,000 positive cases were reported, and 66 deaths.

According to Bloomberg, Hong Kong is now the second worst city in the world to be in now (the worst is Pakistan), in terms of how the place is dealing with Covid-19, its healthcare services and facilities, vaccines and so forth.

Hong Kong has plunged in the resilience score

How did the city drop so low? 

Ask Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor.

Her Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee continues to repeat the mantra that the fifth wave is "unprecedented" and that it hasn't peaked yet.

"We must use the coming two to three months to curb the pandemic with several measures," she said today.

As hospitals are now overstretched, any patient considered stable will be moved to isolation facilities or their homes as long as they had a negative test by the 14th day.

The only bright spot is that those who are fully vaccinated can end their isolation period if they test negative after the sixth or seventh day.

"We need to make sure resources are allocated to those who are most in need," Chan said.

You don't say!

Some temporary isolation facilities 

So many people on social media have suggested that only those who are in dire need of medical help should go to the hospital -- those who test positive but have no major symptoms should just isolate at home. But Hong Kong refuses this idea, as it continues to follow its goal of "dynamic zero Covid".

It's amusing to see government officials running around like chickens with their heads cut off.

Secretary for Housing and Transport Frank Chan Fan and his department are preparing some 3,000 flats in just completed housing estates to be temporary isolation units and described the logistics involved.

He said more than 16,000 light bulbs, 10,000 bed sheets, 3,000 electric appliances and other furniture items had to be procured, delivered and installed in all units on different levels within a short time.

They will have to keep working harder -- some 88,000 community isolation units for people with mild or no symptoms need to be ready in the next few months.

Inspection of the Lok Ma Chau Loop site

And at Lok Ma Chau Loop a temporary hospital is being built to house 816 beds. 

Hope they are building enough to house everyone! There is video footage of an unnamed hospital with patients placed in a hallway. It's devastating. Even more devastating is that so many are unvaccinated...

Government Madly Spinning the Election

How many people will turn out for the December 19 election?

The Hong Kong government is really spinning hard when it comes to the upcoming Legislative Council elections on December 19.

First it was outlawing people from instructing others on how to vote even though casting a blank ballot is not illegal, then it was opening up three border checkpoints for Hongkongers living on the mainland to vote without having to quarantine.

Lam says low turnout does "not mean anything"

But of the possible 100,000 voters in the three areas, Lo Wu, Heung Yuen Wai, and Lok Ma Chau Spur Line, only 18,000 people registered.

A survey found 60 percent of respondents had no idea who was running in the election and only 34 percent planned not to vote, to which the Independent Commission Against Corruption is looking into the possibility that the survey was influencing voters.

It seems that the government thinks voter turn out may be low, and so instead of hoping for high numbers, its leader is predicting all is well because of the silent majority.

In an interview with state-media outlet Global Times, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said a low voter turn out will "not mean anything".

"There is a saying from the government in the old days that when the administration is doing well and its credibility is high, the voter turnout will decrease because the people do not have a strong impetus to choose different lawmakers to supervise the government," she said. "Therefore, I think the turnout rate does not mean anything."

Hongkongers can also vote at three border points

Which "old days" is Lam referring to? The colonial ones when people didn't even have the right to vote?

She has to dig so far back in history, when only two years ago a record 71 percent of 4.13 million people turned out to cast their ballot to turn 17 out of 18 districts into pro-democracy ones.

An Upcoming Election Not Many Know About

Hong Kong will have an election soon, did you know?

Hong Kong will have its first election for the Legislative Council since the electoral system was overhauled on December 12, but ask people if they know who's on the ballot and they'd probably reply that they didn't.

The changes to the electoral system include adding 20 more seats to the legislature's previous 70, but the number of directly elected lawmakers has decreased from 35 to 20. 

Pro-democracy parties criticised the move as a way to silence dissent and make it harder for them to run; in the end they decided there was no point in running, which will further change the political landscape.

Number of directly-elected seats down to 20

There is no more intense campaigning or rallies, only the odd leaflet handed out and no one cares to grab one either.

A survey on November 24 by the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute found of the 838 people questioned, 60 percent did not know any of the candidates running in their geographic constituency, while 40 percent knew at least one.

In addition, 52 percent of them plan to vote, which is a sharp drop from 2018 when 80 percent said they would definitely cast their ballot.

Perhaps this is why the Hong Kong government has decided to set up polling stations at three border check points, Heung Yuen Wai, Lo Wu, and Lok Ma Chau Spur Line so that Hongkongers living in China could cast their votes -- quarantine free. The numbers of people living in these areas could add another 111,000 votes... for which side?

In the meantime the authorities are cracking down on anyone who is directing people on how to vote on December 19. Today arrest warrants were issued for former lawmaker Ted Hui Chi-fung who is now in Australia, and former district councillor Yau Man-chun now in the UK, for urging voters to either cast blank ballots or boycott the election.

An arrest warrant was issued for Ted Hui

Hui and Yau posted on their social media pages between October 30 and November 29, with the former calling for the public to cast blank votes, while the latter told people not to vote, according to the Independent Commission Against Corruption.

In his post, Hui hoped there would be more blank ballots than those filled out as a sign of resistance to tyranny, while Yau called for an outright boycott of the election.

The ICAC presented its investigation to the Department of Justice and it said there was enough evidence to prosecute the two men, and hence the arrest warrants. Hui faces four charges, Yau, eight.

The anti-corruption agency urged the public not to engage in making illegal appeals or repost unlawful content to uphold a fair and clean election.

"The commission will continue to take resolute enforcement actions to combat conduct manipulating and sabotaging the election to ensure that it will be held in a fair and just manner."

Yau is in the UK

In response to the warrant, Yau wrote on his Facebook page: "As for the coffee invitation from the ICAC, my response for now is: noted."

Earlier this month, the ICAC arrested three people for allegedly urging others to cast blank ballots in the Legco election, shortly after security chief Chris Tang Ping-keung warned that such calls might be illegal.

Two men and a woman aged between 29 and 65 were arrested for reposting an online post that encouraged voters to cast blank votes. The trio were later released on bail pending a further investigation.

And just to make sure the elections go smoothly, on December 19 there will be 10,000 police officers all over the streets of Hong Kong... 

Lam Closes More Borders, Healthcare Workers Want More

A few thousand public healthcare workers went on strike today, more tomorrow

True to their word, some 2,400 public hospital workers went on strike in Hong Kong today and they have plans to increase the number of strikers tomorrow following Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor's response of closing some borders but not all.

At 5pm today, Lam and her senior officials gave a press conference where she announced closures of the Lo Wu and Lok Ma Chau border crossings as well as the Hong Kong-Macau Ferry Terminal.

Carrie Lam announced more border closures this afternoon

However, the border check point at Shenzhen Bay remains open, as well as at Hong Kong International Airport and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge.

This was not what the Hospital Authority Employees Alliance demanded -- they wanted a complete shutdown of all border points with the mainland in order to stem or slowdown the flow of the coronavirus into Hong Kong. Even top infectious disease expert Dr Ho Pak-leung of the University of Hong Kong agreed with their demand.

At the press conference, reporters demanded Lam to explain why she still kept the three border points open, which constitute 60 percent of passenger traffic.

Lam -- who was not wearing a mask -- explained that six other checkpoints had closed earlier, reducing the number of mainlanders coming into the city. But because more than 100,000 people were still crossing the border on a daily basis, the government had to close Lo Wu and Lok Ma Chau, which are easily accessible by rail.

The union says Lam's latest measures don't meet its demands

She hoped that now with only three remaining border points that they would make it less convenient for travelers and they would think twice about going to the mainland.

When reporters asked why not completely close the borders, Lam said China and Hong Kong had a special relationship, that it would be impossible to completely close off the border because children may have right of abode in Hong Kong while the parent didn't, people working on the mainland were commuting or living on the mainland and going to the city to work, and the need for food and other products to come here.

"These measures are consistent with the initiatives rolled out earlier," Lam said. "They are completely irrelevant to the strike."

However one cannot deny Lam was under immense pressure by not only the 15,000-strong union, but also the public, whose fears about the coronavirus are growing by the day, mostly thanks to the proliferation of news on social media, some of which are overblown or false.

Lam claims she did not bow to pressure from the union

The union also had concerns about having enough protective equipment to do their work properly and Lam said she would make sure healthcare workers were the first to receive these products.

"I completely understand that medical professionals have been on the forefront. I respect them, and we will do our utmost to supply them with protective gear. We agree with them on the need to reduce the cross-border flow... but at this critical juncture, I could not agree with the use of extreme means [such as going on strike]."

But following her press conference, the union members chanted slogans to continue their threat of more people striking tomorrow to put more pressure on the government to do more not only for them, but for the people of Hong Kong to feel safer from the threat of the coronavirus.

If the union manages to persuade Lam to completely shut the borders, that could be the impetus it needs to inspire a city-wide strike, something that was unsuccessful a few months ago during the anti-government protests.

Practically everyone is united in their wrath against their leader... maybe this time around, a city-wide strike may actually happen in the near future.

Stay tuned!