Amid coronavirus outbreak, bigger killers lurk for Hong Kong’s elderly living alone – isolation and panic
- City’s most vulnerable groups are left to face contagion alone, with lack of masks and no physical ability to source for them
- They are stuck at home with no companions, feeling anxious over news images of panic buying citywide, while community activities have been cancelled
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Chau Mee-heung, 84, lives alone in a 100 sq ft public rental flat in Hong Kong’s Lam Tin. She lost her husband to colorectal cancer in 2003, and her younger son to the severe acute respiratory syndrome epidemic that year.
She has hypertension and diabetes, and does not go out unless necessary, but amid the coronavirus crisis in the city and down to only five masks, Chau recently queued up at 7am with thousands for fresh supplies, only to go home empty-handed after three hours in the cold.
It was not her first time standing in line on aching knees to get protective items, and having her efforts come to naught.
“I stood for hours until my legs were hurting, but the masks were sold out long before it was my turn,” she says. “But what can I do about it? I can’t see or hear clearly, and I’m slow.”
Now living on the government’s monthly welfare allowance of a few thousand dollars, Chau says she tries not to trouble her daughter and elder son.