One Virus, Two Different Leaders

Ho Iat Seng announced today all casinos will be shut for two weeks

This morning Hong Kong recorded its first death from the coronavirus, a 39-year-old man who had suffered from sudden heart failure. Now there are two deaths outside of China, over 20,000 confirmed cases, 427 dead and interestingly 664 have recovered.

However over 20,000 cases is a lot, and health experts are expecting even more cases in the coming days, as people return from their extended Chinese New Year holidays. It's going to be a long, tough slog for all of us.

Carrie Lam still refuses to close all borders and wear a mask!

Yesterday Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor announced that no one would be able to cross the border check point at the Hong Kong-Macau ferry terminal, and then today her Macanese counterpart Ho Iat Seng declared at a press conference this afternoon that all 41 casinos would be shut down for two weeks.

He didn't say when this drastic action would start, but it was prompted by the case of a casino worker who fell ill with the coronavirus during the Chinese New Year holiday. Ho also shut the border between Macau and China.

Us Hongkongers have been impressed by his decisive leadership,  while Lam is still being pressured by striking healthcare workers to close the remaining borders with the motherland to prevent the fast spread of the virus.

And what is with her not wearing a mask at the press conference yesterday and today, claiming she ordered her ministers and staff not to wear them and give them to frontline healthcare staff instead?

Red and white ferries are docked in Shun Tak ferry terminal

The Hong Kong government surely has a steady supply now that prisoners are working around the clock to make these masks? Or does Lam want to show she is sacrificing her health for the cause? Either way it got no sympathy -- only confusion as infectious disease experts like Ho Pak-leung have strongly advised Hongkongers to wear a mask in public.

Her actions continue to confound...

This evening I walked to Shun Tak ferry terminal in Sheung Wan, where the ferries that would have carried people to Macau and back were all docked. In the last few days the ferries have been pretty empty anyway; from a distance I could see only a handful of people on each boat passing by the waterfront.

Upstairs the mall it was pretty dead, like Pacific Place and IFC, and it was only before 8pm. The McDonald's outlet only had one person eating there, though Maxim's next door had a few more customers.

The McDonald's outlet is practically empty at dinnertime

It's hard to see how businesses can be sustained here with the border shut down indefinitely.

All shops and restaurants are now basically depending on locals, but after eight months of protests and now this coronavirus have completely turned us off from wanting to dine out let alone shop.

Hong Kong has to seriously re-think how its economy is run and what kind of city it wants to be, what kind of talent it wants to attract, and who it wants to live here.

Sounds existential, but now is the time to really think hard about pressing the reset button on the city and consider what it wants its future to be. The current model we have been running on for over a century is not working.

In the meantime, though there is one good thing about this mess -- with significantly fewer boats passing through Victoria Harbour in the next few weeks and months, surely it will be a fantastic opportunity for the water quality to improve and the quality of life for the sea creatures that live below?

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!

Hongkongers' Coronavirus Concerns Grow

Even the MTR is very quiet, with not many people using public transport

Hong Kong is very quiet.

There aren't many people out on the streets, on the MTR, in shopping malls.

It's really eerie.

Yesterday I overheard some women in the gym discussing if Hongkongers' reaction to the coronavirus was an overreaction or not. One thought it was, the other not. Interestingly they were diplomatic about it and didn't get heated like the protests that had consumed the city months earlier.

Shopping malls like Times Square have few customers

Maybe it's because the epicentre is in Wuhan and not Hong Kong.

In the evening my relatives who were here during SARS are taking every precaution to protect themselves as much as possible.

When they heard the news that a Chinese doctor claimed to have contracted the coronavirus through his eyes, my relatives stopped wearing contacts and only wears glasses now. If there is a period where the coronavirus is so virulent that they can't go out for a few days, they have bought enough cup noodles and noodles to keep them alive.

However their biggest worry is sourcing masks. Not just any mask, but masks not made in China. "Do you dare to wear one made from China?" my uncle asked.

They are heading to Japan for a trip they had planned months ago and will scour every stop they go to for masks. This is their main mission now.

Almost everyone wears a mask out in public

Then today a friend and I met up for brunch and he is mentally overwhelmed by it, probably exhausted after dealing with eight months of protests and seeing the economic impact it has had on Hong Kong and now the coronavirus.

He wants to take a break and leave Hong Kong before more countries make it harder for us living here to get out. The United States, European Union, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore have all banned or restricted the entry of Chinese citizens and foreigners who have visited China recently. The list could keep growing thanks to the World Health Organization declaring a global public health emergency.

As we were discussing this, we heard gales of laughter and shrieks coming from the tables behind us, diners who seemed completely unaware or oblivious to the health crisis in the city.

Meanwhile I had dinner with another friend who is hoping that not all the shows for the upcoming Hong Kong Arts Festival will be cancelled. But the Boston Symphony Orchestra which was supposed to open the festival on February 12 and 13 has bowed out due to concerns of the coronavirus, and with a number of Leisure and Cultural Services Department venues closed indefinitely, it's hard to tell if the festival will continue at this rate.

The Boston Symphony Orchestra has cancelled its Asia trip

After dinner we walked through IFC mall and at 8.15pm it was a ghost town. Most of the shops were already closed. I wandered through the supermarket CitySuper and usually it's busy with people getting their food shopping done for the week, but there was less than half the crowd.

For Hong Kong this is only the first week of the coronavirus. The statistics are staggering, with so far over 14,500 confirmed cases globally, 305 deaths, including one in the Philippines.

A Whatsapp message is going around today, a voice message apparently from Dr Ho Pak-leung recorded yesterday, who says the coronavirus could be transmitted through faeces and that people should close the lid of the toilet before flushing.

He also suggests pouring some water in the drain in the bathroom floor everyday, though I couldn't understand the reasoning except perhaps to ensure the pipes are functioning?

This just adds to more anxiety for everyone with more things to do and worry about.

Meanwhile Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor refused to meet with members of the Hospital Authority Employees Alliance today, and so the strike will go ahead tomorrow. This is contrary to what Lam has said before, that she would be willing to listen to what others had to say.

The health care union said Carrie Lam didn't come to meet them

The fact that she didn't even want to meet the union suggests she is not interested in trying to understand the healthcare sectors' concerns, even if they are complaints about how the government has handled this crisis so far. It is the least she can do.

But perhaps she has other things to do, like get her hair done.

Everyone is frustrated by the government's inaction. My friend at brunch kept saying how the Macanese government was decisive in making sure it sourced 20 million masks for its residents and they could get 10 masks at a low prices every 10 days, while the Hong Kong government has done nothing of the sort.

At the same time he upset by the price gouging by opportunistic businesses, or having to wait in line for hours.

And this is only the start of the coronavirus crisis... it maybe a few months yet before Hong Kong and the rest of the world are in the clear...

Healthcare Workers Vote to Strike

Health secretary Sophia Chan wipes tears during a radio show today

A newly formed union made up of doctors, nurses and hospital staff have voted overwhelmingly to strike starting on Monday to press the government to shut all border points with China in order to stem the possibility of more coronavirus cases in Hong Kong.

The pro-democracy Hospital Authority Employees Alliance voted 3,123 for the strike, 10 against and 23 abstained. Eight votes were invalid. The union has about 13,000 members, but many of them were unable to vote today because they were either working or not in Hong Kong.

The healthcare union voted overwhelmingly to strike Monday

This strike will be yet another headache for the Hong Kong government, which so far has done little to allay the public's fears. Which is perhaps why Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee broke down in tears before the vote while speaking on a radio show.

"I'm worried about the emotions of healthcare workers," said Chan, who paused for a few seconds to compose herself. "As well as our services."

She said her biggest concern was the safety of frontline healthcare staff.

"We must protect all our frontline workers," Chan said, noting that she understood they faced immense pressure.

So... how about meeting their demands and protecting them by closing the borders?

DAB's Starry Lee hands out masks to residents

Or has Chan begged Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor to do this and she refused? Or is this a sign that Chan has failed in her job? Or are these crocodile tears in the hopes medical workers will feel sorry for her?

Regardless, the strike is going ahead, though it is unclear at this point how much services will be impacted and how many people will be participating, but it is important for them to show how serious they are about their demand, and at this point most of the public would probably support them too.

The government is not taking the coronavirus and its potential to spread seriously enough, leaving the public terrified and having to fend for themselves. They are so worried about not being able to secure enough masks that they have cleaned out supermarket shelves of everything from rice to vegetables to instant cup noodles, bread and vitamins to be locked down in their own flats for several days, maybe weeks.

Long lines to pick up masks from pro-Beijing political groups

Memories of SARS 17 years ago have not faded for Hongkongers, but perhaps for Lam and her ministers it's a distant past.

In order to salvage their political skins and garner some good will from voters, several pro-Beijing legislators handed out 80,000 free masks to people in Kowloon, though they were in ziplock bags, only a few in each bag. But will those grateful mask receivers vote for these pro-establishment politicians come November during the Legislative Council elections?

Even they are demanding that Lam close the borders and she hasn't listened to them either...